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The objectives of the CubeSail mission are to demonstrate the concept of solar sail propulsion of a 3-axis stabilised 25 m 2 solar sail for one year while in low Earth orbit; and to demonstrate the use of gossamer structures (very light gauze-like fabric) as a drag augmentation device for satellite de-orbiting. [6]
IKAROS, the first space-probe with a solar sail in flight (artist's depiction), featuring a typical square sail configuration of almost 200 m 2. Solar sails (also known as lightsails, light sails, and photon sails) are a method of spacecraft propulsion using radiation pressure exerted by sunlight on large surfaces. A number of spaceflight ...
Artist's concept of a heliogyro, proposed to visit Halley's Comet in 1986. Each blade would be 8 m (26 ft) wide and 6.2 km (3.9 mi), for 0.6 km 2 (0.23 sq mi) of sail area. Solar sail types. A heliogyro could have dozens of blades. UltraSail is a proposed type of robotic spacecraft that uses radiation pressure exerted by sunlight for propulsion.
An electric sail (also known as an electric solar wind sail or an E-sail) is a proposed form of spacecraft propulsion using the dynamic pressure of the solar wind as a source of thrust. It creates a "virtual" sail by using small wires to form an electric field that deflects solar wind protons and extracts their momentum.
LightSail 2 with deployed solar sail, 23 July 2019. LightSail 2 (COSPAR 2019-036AC) was a CubeSat fitted with a solar sail the size of a boxing ring, covering 32 m 2 (340 sq ft). The sail captured incoming photons from the Sun, just as a wind sail catches the moving air molecules, to propel the spacecraft. [30]
The IKAROS probe is the world's first spacecraft to use solar sailing as the main propulsion. [14] It was designed to demonstrate four key technologies (comments in parentheses refer to figure): Deployment and control of a large, thin solar sail membrane (grey-blue areas numbered 3)
An example of work on this type of technology is Advanced Electric Propulsion System. [5] The NASA Solar Technology Application Readiness (NSTAR) ion engine has been used with photovoltaic solar panels, which was tested on the Deep Space 1 mission along with Solar Concentrator Arrays (Launched in 1998 as part of the New Millennium Program). [6] [7]
A diffractive solar sail, or diffractive lightsail, is a type of solar sail which relies on diffraction instead of reflection for its propulsion. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] Current diffractive sail designs use thin metamaterial films, containing micrometer-size gratings based on polarization or subwavelength refractive structures, causing light to spread out ...