Once again the LightSail spacecraft from the Planetary Society, which launched May 20th, has fallen silent. Yesterday, Friday the 5th of June, the managing director of the mission noted some abnormalities in the spacecrafts system readings. This was noted only after an apparently successful deployment of solar panels. Contact was previously lost roughly a week ago but was shortly regained after a system reboot.

This time however it appears to be a battery fault, according to the mission manager David Spencer. This was noticed shortly before the loss of contact, when David Spencer noted the systems batteries were not drawing any energy from the solar panels that were deployed; nor was there any current being designated towards the subsystems of the spacecraft.

According to Spencer, if the issue is a chronic under voltage condition, then this could be rectified through the LightSails natural course. During each orbit of the earth the LightSail eclipses the sun for around 2100 seconds. Spencer also continued to say:

“Over the next couple of weeks, the orbit will precess to a full-sun condition, where the entire orbit is sunlit.”

It is expected that the sail deployment sequence will be initiated upon contact being restored and battery levels reaching strong levels once more.

 

Here is a video from the Planetary Society with all of the information you could need on the LightSail: