Jan 24, 2011

Steve Cole Headquarters, Washington 202-358-0918 stephen e cole@nasa gov

Kim Newton
Marshall Space Flight Center, Huntsville, Ala 256-544-0371 kimberly d newton@nasa gov

RELEASE: 11-027

NASA PARTNERS ON NANOSAIL-D AMATEUR ASTRONOMY IMAGE CONTEST

WASHINGTON -- NASA has formed a partnership with Spaceweather com to engage the amateur astronomy community to submit the best images of the orbiting NanoSail-D solar sail NanoSail-D unfurled the first ever 100-square-foot solar sail in low-Earth orbit on Jan 20

To encourage observations of NanoSail-D, Spaceweather com is offering prizes for the best images of this historic, pioneering spacecraft in the amounts of $500 (grand prize), $300 (first prize) and $100 (second prize)

The contest is open to all types of images, including, but not limited to, telescopic captures of the sail to simple wide-field camera shots of solar sail flares If NanoSail-D is in the field of view, the image is eligible for judging

The solar sail is about the size of a large tent It will be observable for approximately 70 to 120 days before it enters the atmosphere and disintegrates The contest continues until NanoSail-D re-enters Earth's atmosphere

NanoSail-D will be a target of interest to both novice and veteran sky watchers Experienced astrophotographers will want to take the first-ever telescopic pictures of a solar sail unfurled in space Backyard stargazers, meanwhile, will marvel at the solar sail flares -- brief but intense flashes of light caused by sunlight glinting harmlessly from the surface of the sail

NanoSail-D could be five to 10 times as bright as the planet Venus, especially later in the mission when the sail descends to lower orbits The NanoSail-D satellite was jointly designed and built by NASA engineers from the agency's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala , and NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif

Key sail design support was provided by ManTech/NeXolve Corp in Huntsville The NanoSail-D experiment is managed by Marshall It is jointly sponsored by the Army Space and Missile Defense Command, the Von Braun Center for Science and Innovation and Dynetics Inc , all located in Huntsville

To learn more about the NanoSail-D imaging challenge and contest rules, satellite tracking predictions and sighting times, visit:

http://www nanosail org

For more information about NanoSail-D, visit:

http://www nasa gov/mission_pages/smallsats/nanosaild html

-end-

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