Evaluation of Influence of Electrostatic Force Generated by Spacecraft Charging on Membrane Structure of Solar Sail

Abstract

Solar sail is a spacecraft that has a large-scale membrane to utilize the solar radiation pressure for its thrust. Hence, maintaining the membrane structure during space flight is a critical issue to keep thrust performance of the spacecraft. In this paper, we focused on the electrostatic force due to spacecraft charging on the membrane as one of the possible factor to cause the deformation of the membrane structure. We had estimated the electrostatic force via charging simulation for the IKAROS spacecraft in solar wind plasma at 1.0 AU. We had also made a structural analysis for the deployed membrane of IKAROS with the electrostatic force. The structural analysis showed that the electrostatic force could hardly affect the membrane structure in this case.