Editing CubeSat (section)

==== Solar sail ====
[[Solar sail]]s&nbsp;(also called&nbsp;light sails&nbsp;or&nbsp;photon sails) are a form of&nbsp;spacecraft propulsion&nbsp;using the&nbsp;[[radiation pressure]]&nbsp;(also called solar pressure) from stars to push large ultra-thin mirrors to high speeds, requiring no propellant. Force from a solar sail scales with the sail's area, this makes sails well suited for use in CubeSats as their small mass results in the greater acceleration for a given solar sail's area. However, solar sails still need to be quite large compared to the satellite, which means useful solar sails must be  deployed, adding mechanical complexity and a potential source of failure. This propulsion method is the only one not plagued with restrictions set by the CubeSat Design Specification, as it does not require high pressures, hazardous materials, or significant chemical energy. A small number of CubeSats have employed a solar sail as its main propulsion and stability in deep space, including the 3U [[NanoSail-D2]] launched in 2010, and the [[LightSail-1]] in May 2015.

[[LightSail-2]] successfully deployed on a Falcon Heavy rocket in 2019,<ref name="Name change">{{cite news |last=Davis |first=Jason |url=http://www.planetary.org/blogs/jason-davis/2016/20160229-meet-lightsail-2.html |title=Meet LightSail 2, The Planetary Society's new solar sailing CubeSat |work=The Planetary Society |date=1 March 2016 |access-date=2016-03-01}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.planetary.org/blogs/jason-davis/lightsail-2-successful-flight-by-light.html |title=LightSail 2 Spacecraft Successfully Demonstrates Flight by Light |website=www.planetary.org |access-date=2020-02-29}}</ref> while one CubeSat that was planned to launch on the [[Space Launch System]]'s first flight ([[Artemis 1]]) in November 2022 was set to use a solar sail: the [[Near-Earth Asteroid Scout]] (NEA Scout).<ref name="McNutt">{{cite web |last1=McNutt |first1=Leslie |last2=Castillo-Rogez |first2=Julie |date=2014 |title=Near-Earth Asteroid Scout |url=https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/20140012882.pdf |access-date=2015-05-13 |work=NASA |publisher=American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics}}</ref> The CubeSat was declared lost when communications were not established within 2 days.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Dickinson |first=David |date=2022-12-06 |title=Status Update: Artemis 1's SmallSat Missions |url=https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/status-update-artemis-1s-smallsat-missions/ |access-date=2023-04-23 |website=Sky&Telescope}}</ref>