Developments and activities in solar sail propulsion

Garner, Charles E.; Price, Hoppy; Edwards, David L.; Baggeit, R.

doi:10.2514/6.2000-3858

Cited by 19 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 4 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…4,7 Furthermore, NASA engineers are currently collaborating with the aerospace company Team Encounter and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to investigate the use of solar sails for constant surveillance of the atmosphere over the north and south poles of the Earth. 8 If such solar sail orbits exist near the lunar south pole, then only one spacecraft would be necessary to maintain continuous coverage.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Solar Sails and Lunar South Pole Coverage

Ozimek

Grebow

Howell

2008

AIAA/AAS Astrodynamics Specialist Conference and Exhibit

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Potential orbits for continuous surveillance of the lunar south pole with just one spacecraft and a solar sail are investigated. Periodic orbits are first computed in the Earth-Moon Restricted Three-Body Problem, using Hermite-Simpson and seventh-degree Gauss-Lobatto collocation schemes. The schemes are easily adapted to include path constraints favorable for lunar south pole coverage. The methods are robust, generating a control history and a nearby solution with little information required for an initial guess. Five solutions of interest are identified and, using collocation, transitioned to the full ephemeris model (including the actual Sun-to-spacecraft line and lunar librations). Of the options investigated, orbits near the Earth-Moon L2 point yield the best coverage results. Propellant-free transfers from a geosynchronous transfer orbit to the coverage orbits are also computed. A steering law is discussed and refined by the collocation methods. The study indicates that solar sails remain a feasible option for constant lunar south pole coverage.

show abstract

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Solar Sails and Lunar South Pole Coverage

Ozimek

Grebow

Howell

2008

AIAA/AAS Astrodynamics Specialist Conference and Exhibit

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…42 There are several types of solar sail implementations that have been considered; these include different attitude control options (3-axis versus spinning), different geometries (square vs. circular disk vs. rectangular "blades"), and structures (deployable booms vs. inflatable structures). Solar sails accelerate under the pressure from solar radiation (essentially a momentum transfer from reflected solar photons), thus requiring no propellant.…”

Section: Solar Sailsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Advanced Propulsion for the XXIst Century

Frisbee

2003

AIAA International Air and Space Symposium and Exposition: The Next 100 Years

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper presents an overview of advanced space propulsion concepts and their research activities at the beginning of the 21 st Century. If successfully developed, these concepts will enable in the coming decades the implementation of propulsion technologies that will reduce the cost of access to space and/or enable aggressive exploration, and ultimately exploitation of the Solar System and beyond. This paper focuses primarily on mid-to far-term in-space propulsion applications, although advanced launch concepts (e.g., launch assist catapults) are also discussed briefly.Examples of advanced propulsion concepts to be discussed include advanced chemical propulsion (high-energy density materials, gelled propellants, etc.), nuclear propulsion (fission, fusion, and antimatter annihilation), electric propulsion (solar-and nuclearelectric propulsion power systems and electric propulsion thrusters), micropropulsion, beamed-energy propulsion (e.g., solar/laser/microwave thermal/electric combinations), beamed-momentum propulsion (e.g., solar/laser/microwave sails, electromagnetic/plasma sails), aero/gravity assist, launch assist catapults, tethers (momentum exchange and electrodynamic), extraterrestrial resource utilization, and breakthrough physics propulsion.

show abstract

“…These advanced missions are in fact driving much of the early technology development work. Materials activities have included the development of 1⋅5μm CP1 polyimide film with integrated Kevlar ripstops by SRS Technologies (4) . This film offers significant performance improvements over standard commercially available 7⋅5μm Kapton film.…”

Section: Agency Activitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Current solar sail development work using CFRP booms and Kapton film, as discussed in Section 1.4, projects a sail assembly loading of order 30gm -2 for near term technology demonstration missions. Other development work at NASA-JPL to fabricate ultrathin sail films could lead to a sail assembly loading of order 5gm -2 or less for future missions (4) . A mid-term assembly loading of order 10gm -2 will be assumed in the subsequent sail sizing analysis.…”

Section: Design Parametersmentioning

confidence: 99%

Low cost Mercury orbiter and sample return missions using solar sail propulsion

McInnes¹,

Hughes²,

Macdonald³

2003

Aeronaut. j.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The use of solar sail propulsion is investigated for both Mercury orbiter (MO) and Mercury sample return missions (MeSR). It will be demonstrated that solar sail propulsion can significantly reduce launch mass and enhance payload mass fractions for MO missions, while MeSR missions are enabled, again with a relatively low launch mass. Previous investigations of MeSR type missions using solar electric propulsion have identified a requirement for an Ariane V launcher to deliver a lander and sample return vehicle. The analysis presented in this paper demonstrates that, in principle, a MeSR mission can be enabled using a single Soyuz-Fregat launch vehicle, leading to significant reductions in launch mass and mission costs. Similarly, it will be demonstrated that the full payload of the ESA Bepi Colombo orbiter mission can be delivered to Mercury using a Soyuz-Fregat launch vehicle, rather than Ariane V, again leading to a reduction in mission costs.

show abstract

Developments and activities in solar sail propulsion

Cited by 19 publications

References 4 publications

Solar Sails and Lunar South Pole Coverage

Solar Sails and Lunar South Pole Coverage

Advanced Propulsion for the XXIst Century

Low cost Mercury orbiter and sample return missions using solar sail propulsion

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About