Cosmos 1 maybe lost in the Space

Cosmos 1 maybe lost in the Space

The revolutionary craft Cosmos 1 seems to have lost in the space. The solar-powered spacecraft was launched into the space yesterday from a Russian submarine and is being funded by the Planetary Society. The tracking stations at the Marshall Islands, eastern Russia, and the Czech Republic are recording signals, which might be originating from the Cosmos 1 but it is not following the original scheduled path.

Emily Lakdawalla, project operations assistant for the Planetary Society said in a statement: “We are probably in orbit, but it’s not the orbit that we thought it was. So now, we search. It could take days to find.” The spacecraft is supposed to use the power of the light particles from the sun to move ahead in the space and this technology is expected to power the next generation spacecrafts instead of traditional aviation fuel technology.

The problem started when the engines powering the rocket taking the Cosmos 1 to space failed resulting in the aircraft not reaching its destined orbit. Project director Louis Friedman spoke about the engine failure and said that with problems with the launcher, there is little possibility that the spacecraft would have reached the desired for orbit.

Cosmos 1 cost around USD 4 million in development and weighs around 100 kilograms. It has the height of around 10 stories and is made up of eight 50-foot rotating triangular blades constructed of aluminized reinforced Mylar. NASA has shown their interest in the project as it gives them some more areas to look ahead for research to power the next generation space missions.