NASA's "next-gen" solar sail spacecraft is ready to launch for practical testing

TechSpot— The ACS3 is super compact – about the size of a microwave oven. However, it has four retractable booms that unfurl and hold four triangular sails, making a diamond shape about half the size of a tennis court. It takes about 25 minutes for the sails to unfold.Read Entire Article

Phys.org—NASA to hoist its sail: Solar sail mission gets ready for launch. A NASA mission testing a new way of navigating our solar system is ready to hoist its sail into space—not to catch the wind, but the propulsive power of sunlight. The Advanced Composite Solar Sail System is targeting launch on Tuesday, April 23 (Wednesday, April 24 in New Zealand) aboard a Rocket Lab Electron rocket from the company's Launch Complex 1 on the Mahia Peninsula of New Zealand.

9to5Mac—The ‘next-generation’ of CarPlay is launching this year; here’s everything we know. Since its initial introduction, Apple’s CarPlay platform has become ubiquitous. It’s available in the vast majority of new cars on the market today, and for good reason: it’s one of the top things people look for when buying a new car. At WWDC in June 2022, Apple announced what it calls the “next generation of CarPlay.” This new CarPlay interface is set to debut in new cars this year, and it’s going to be a big change. The first automakers signed on to support next-gen CarPlay? Porsche and...

Phys.org—Two NASA sounding rockets launch from Alaska during solar flare. Two Black Brant IX sounding rockets launched from Poker Flat Research Range in Fairbanks, Alaska, April 17, 2024, during an M-class solar flare for NASA's sounding rocket solar flare campaign.