• DocumentCode
    980079
  • Title

    New concept of high speed AB solar sail

  • Author

    Bolonkin, Alexander

  • Author_Institution
    C & R Aerosp., Brooklyn, NY
  • Volume
    44
  • Issue
    4
  • fYear
    2008
  • Firstpage
    1538
  • Lastpage
    1542
  • Abstract
    The solar sail is a large thin film used to collect solar light pressure for moving of space apparatus. Unfortunately, the solar radiation pressure is very small about 9 muN/mm at Earth´s orbit. However, the light force significantly increases up to 0.2-0.35 N/mm near the Sun. The author offers his research on a new revolutionary highly reflective solar sail which performs a flyby (after special maneuver) near the Sun and attains velocities up to 400 km/s and reaches far planets of the Solar system in a short time or enables flights out of the Solar system. New, highly reflective sail mirror allows avoiding the strong heating of the solar sail. It may be useful for probes close to the Sun and Mercury and Venus.
  • Keywords
    aerospace materials; aerospace propulsion; optical films; radiation pressure; solar radiation; flyby maneuver; high speed AB solar sail; reflective sail mirror; reflective solar sail; solar light pressure; space apparatus; thin film; Earth; Mirrors; Planets; Probes; Solar heating; Solar radiation; Solar system; Sun; Transistors; Venus;
  • fLanguage
    English
  • Journal_Title
    Aerospace and Electronic Systems, IEEE Transactions on
  • Publisher
    ieee
  • ISSN
    0018-9251
  • Type

    jour

  • DOI
    10.1109/TAES.2008.4667728
  • Filename
    4667728