Concepts and Engineering Advances Required for Near-Term Solar Sail Propelled Outer Planet Probes

Computer Science

Scientific paper

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Solar Sails, Technology Assessment, Spacecraft Propulsion, Space Exploration, Outer Planets Explorers

Scientific paper

The concept of using light pressure for propulsion is not a new one. In fact, Tsiolkovsky was writing about the possibility as early as 1921. Solar sailing has been the subject of many papers and has been discussed in at least four textbooks since that time. However, most research in solar sails ordinarily focuses on specific aspects of the concept and goes into great detail about one subcomponent or is more general and discusses basic theories involved, without investigating finer details that may inhibit successful implementation of the concept. Teledyne Brown Engineering (TBE) has developed an internal solar sail research concept that suggests that it is possible to use solar sails on the order of 200-500 m in diameter to propel payloads up to 100 kg at speeds of nearly 10 AU/year. However, these spacecraft would be constructed of state-of-the-art and near-term available technologies, so there is some program risk involved. This presentation discusses the concept and engineering advances required to make solar sail propulsion an enabling technology. Additional information is contained in the original extended abstract.

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