SOLAR SAILS

INTRODUCTION
Solar

sails are a form of propulsion system which utilize the solar radiation pressure to push ultra-thin mirrors to high speeds Light sails could also be driven by energy beams like laser Utilize a phenomenon that has a proven effect on space-craft. The solar radiation has profound effect on spacecraft orbit and attitude of a spacecraft. hence solar sails utilize this effect to propel as well as orient the space-craft.

History of the concept

1610:

Johannes Kepler proposes sun to power crafts in outer space, based on observation of Halleys comet. Maxwells theory of EM radiation provides the basis of effects which the sail will use. 1864: Jules Verne based on this concept, writes in a book about future vehicles using light and electricity for reaching near light velocities

1861-64:

History cont
1899-1901:

conformation of the effect that light can exert pressure Freidrich Zander proposes the idea of using very this sheets of mirror using pressure exerted by sunlight 1976: first design effort to send a craft powered by the concept on a rendezvous with Halleys comet

PHYSICAL PRINCIPLE
Similar

to the sails used in ships, wind pushes the sails The momentum of photons which strike these ultrathin(40 to 50 times thinner than a sheet of paper) sails and thus produce a small force which propels the space-craft forward. Solar radiation exerts a pressure on the sail due to reflection and a small fraction of it is absorbed. This absorbed energy heats the sail and this reradiates the energy from the front and rear surfaces.

PRINCIPLE
= 2 = c c Momentum = mass velocity = m c = p c = Specular reflection = 8.22 N/m2 (90% efficiency) Force on the sail is inversely proportional to the square of the distance from the sun Square of the cosine of the angle between the sail force vector and the radial from the sun

0 2 2

ADVANTAGES:

Have the possibility of operating at low costs Long operating lifetimes Very few moving parts No need to carry any propellant Have the potential of delivering payloads many times The continuous photonic pressure provides enough thrust to perform maneuvers, such as hovering at a fixed point in space which would require too much propellant for conventional rocket systems

DISADVANTAGES:
The

threshold point for atmospheric drag and pressure forces only occurs at 800 km limiting range of operations. of materials to withstand forces of takeoff is very difficult existing efficient technology is available. low value of thrusts are achieved.

Creation

No

Very

MISSIONS
NASA

team had developed a sail mission called Nano Sail D which was lost in a launch failure aboard Falcon 1. The second version of the previous nano sail was launched successfully and deployed in low earth orbit.(mission requirement included data on deploying solar sails and use of solar sails as an actual way of propulsion)

APPLICATIONS
Satellite missions: Leading candidate for missions requiring vehicles to complete a variety of missions. Concept that suggests the sail based satellites which can hover around the poles The MESSENGER probe en route to mercury is using light pressure reacting against its solar panels to perform fine trajectory corrections Interstellar flight: A method is proposed which can move large sails which are powered by laser beams which push these light sails to near light speeds

Applications contd
Interstellar flight: A method is proposed which can move large sails which are powered by laser beams which push these light sails to near light speeds Japan's JAXA successfully tested IKAROS in 2010. The goal was to deploy and control the sail and for the first time determining the minute orbit perturbations caused by light pressure

MATERIALS:
Drexler

solar sail uses a thin aluminum film with a baseline thickness of 0.1 micrometers. To be produced in space using vapour deposition. most common material in current design is 2 m kapton film. It resists the heat of a pass close to the sun and still remains reasonably strong. Kapton is a polymer material. fibers have shown in research to be better materials than Kapton.

The

Carbon

Molecular manufacturing may hold the future

Molecular

manufacturing which is proposed to be possible in the future. potential of creating materials with thickness about wavelength of light. weight is proposed to be 0.1g/m2.

the

Their

Making

them 30 times lighter than any of the current materials.