The 3-step DLR–ESA Gossamer road to solar sailing

Geppert, U.; Biering, B.; Lura, F.; Block, Joern; Straubel, Marco; Reinhard, R.

doi:10.1016/j.asr.2010.09.016

Cited by 49 publications

(23 citation statements)

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“…The booms have substantial heritage from DLR's history of gossamer structure research and ongoing sail research [13,14,16,17]. Further detail is included in a separate manuscript, also presented at the 2013 SDM conference [18].…”

Section: B Deployment Systemmentioning

confidence: 97%

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Deorbitsail: a deployable sail for de-orbiting

Stohlman

Lappas

2013

54th AIAA/ASME/ASCE/AHS/ASC Structures, Structural Dynamics, and Materials Conference

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Deorbitsail is a collaborative project funded by the European Commission. The Deorbitsail Cubesat mission will demonstrate in-space deployment of a large thin membrane sail and drag deorbiting using this sail. The sail will be deployed from an 11-by-11-by-34-cm Cubesat platform, which will have 3-axis attitude control. A set of four gossamer booms will deploy four triangular membrane segments to form the 5-by-5-meter drag sail. The Deorbitsail design is intended for space debris prevention, although it holds potential for additional applications in aerobraking and solar sail propulsion. A 2014 launch is planned.This paper describes some of the high-level design and the ongoing engineering goals of the project.

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Section: B Deployment Systemmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…The Deutsches Zentrum für Luft-und Raumfahrt e.V (DLR) Gossamer project will launch three solar sails of increasing size into orbits of increasing altitude, with Gossamer-1 slated for 2013 [13]. Gossamer-1 will be a 5-by-5 m sail flown with the QB50 CubeSat project in a 300-320 km orbit.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Deorbitsail: a deployable sail for de-orbiting

Stohlman

Lappas

2013

54th AIAA/ASME/ASCE/AHS/ASC Structures, Structural Dynamics, and Materials Conference

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“…NASA and the German Aerospace Center (DLR) have developed large ground demonstration systems for solar sails of this type. 2,3 In 2010, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) flew the world's first operational solar sail, IKAROS (Interplanetary Kite-craft Accelerated by Radiation of the Sun), which used a spinning square solar sail, supported by centrifugal forces alone. This obviated the booms and masts of a sail support structure, making the sail system itself very lightweight.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Heliogyro Blade Twist Control via Reflectivity Modulation

Guerrant¹,

Wilkie²,

Lawrence³

2012

53rd AIAA/ASME/ASCE/AHS/ASC Structures, Structural Dynamics and Materials Conference

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The heliogyro is an ultra-lightweight, high performance, helicopter-like, spinning solar sail architecture. One principal concern for the feasibility of heliogyro solar sails is the ability to adequately control the dynamic response of their long, unsupported blades, and, in particular, to damp disturbances caused by maneuvering transients at the blade tips. In this study, the authors investigated the use of reflectivity control devices (RCDs) at the blade tips for damping pitch disturbances for a conceptual, small-scale, heliogyro technology, flight demonstrator. The simple RCD controller enforces pitch rate tracking but requires pitch rate knowledge at multiple stations to ensure stability. Sensitivity analyses explored the design space for future RCDs. Results showed that RCDs similar to those flown on Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's IKAROS (Interplanetary Kite-craft Accelerated by Radiation of the Sun) and covering 10% of the blade's reflective area were sufficient to control blade torsional disturbances, albeit not quickly enough for short-period orbit applications. Using advanced RCDs that are thinner and have a larger reflectivity difference between on and off states reduced maneuver settling time by 67%. Doubling the on/off reflectivity difference cut settling time in half, allowed for a smaller RCD, and boosted total solar sail acceleration 63%. Reducing RCD thickness by half decreased settling time only 35% but did enhance acceleration by 127%. Such gains should be feasible with moderate improvements in current RCD materials technology and make RCD-based heliogyro blade control a viable solid-state alternative to mechanical, torsional damping systems at the blade root. Nomenclature a 0 = characteristic acceleration (mm/s 2 ) A = cross-sectional area (m 2 ), system dynamics matrix B = control matrix B f = Lambertian coefficient of diffuse reflectivity C d = coefficient of diffuse reflectivity C s = coefficient of specular reflectivity c = blade chord (m) c s = solar cell chord (m) f RCD = reflectivity control device blade area fraction F = force (N) 2 h = blade thickness (m) iRs = index of transition from inboard to outboard I = area moment of inertia (m 4 ) J = mass moment of inertia (kg-m 2 ) K = stiffness (N-m/rad) or control gain m = mass (kg) M = moment (N-m) � = moment per length span (N-m/m) n = finite element index n = blade normal unit vector N = total number of finite elements P 0 = solar radiation pressure at 1AU (4.56e-6 Pa) P n = pressure normal to blade surface (Pa) R = total blade span or heliogyro radius (m) R s = span inboard of RCDs (m) s = solar radiation unit vector t = time (s) u = system control input w = vertical displacement (m) x = spanwise position (m) y = in-plane, chordwise position from centerline (m) α= vector describing steady-state blade shape (rad/N-m) β = blade sun angle (rad) δθ n = difference in blade pitch from one element to the next (rad) Δx = element span (m) γ = local angle of incident solar radiation (rad) ϕ = vertical membrane deflection (rad) θ = blade pit...

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“…Nanosail-D and Lightsail-1 share a common boom technology: the triangular rollable and collapsible TRAC boom [7]. European projects of similar size are also underway: The Surrey Space Centre's Cubesail project [5] will use metal tapespring booms, related reserarch at the SSC has used open-section, bistable, carbon fibre reinforced polymer (CFRP) booms [8], and DLR's Gossamer series is advancing their range of closed-section CFRP booms for this size range with Gossamer-1 [9].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning
confidence: 99%

Testing of the Deorbitsail drag sail subsystem
Stohlman
¹
,
Fernandez
²
,
Lappas
³

et al. 2013
54th AIAA/ASME/ASCE/AHS/ASC Structures, Structural Dynamics, and Materials Conference
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Deorbitsail is a 3U Cubesat project that will launch, deploy, and support a large drag sail deorbiting payload. The flight payload sail system will deploy to 5 by 5 meters, increasing the frontal area of the spacecraft dramatically. A series of 4-by-4-meter sail deployments has been performed with a prototype of the proposed system. The prototype system tests included partial deployments in environmental chambers and full-scale deployment at ambient lab conditions. Design changes arising from testing of the sail system prototype are described in this paper. Engineering model construction is underway and the Deorbitsail launch will be in 2014. Deorbitsail is a European Commission 7th Framework Programme project with nine partner organizations. © 2013 by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc. All rights reserved

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The 3-step DLR–ESA Gossamer road to solar sailing

Cited by 49 publications

References 1 publication

Deorbitsail: a deployable sail for de-orbiting

Deorbitsail: a deployable sail for de-orbiting

Heliogyro Blade Twist Control via Reflectivity Modulation

Testing of the Deorbitsail drag sail subsystem

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