Solar Sails (eBook)

Giovanni Vulpetti received his Ph.D. in plasma physics in 1973. Subsequently, he specialized in astrodynamics. He wrote many tens of scientific papers about astrodynamics, advanced propulsion concepts, and interstellar flight, with particular regard to matter-antimatter annihilation propulsion. In 1979, he joined Telespazio SpA (Rome, Italy). From 1995 to 2011, he has attended the committee for Lunar Base & Mars exploration of the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA). He has been involving in solar-photon sailing since 1992. In the 1990s, he found out new types of sailcraft trajectories and published his theory mainly on Acta Astronautica, JPL workshops, and IAA symposia. In 1994, he was elected a Full Member of IAA. In spring 1997, he was a consultant at ESA/ESTEC about the solar-sail mission concept Daedalus. In 1979-2004, he contributed to 11 Italian and European space programs. In 2001, he was a  consultant at NASA/MSFC for the NASA Interstellar Probe. In the course of two decades, he accomplished some large computer codes devoted to mission analysis & trajectory optimization via rockets and/or solar-sails. In the 90s, he was a member of the IAA committee for small satellites and, consequently, he participated in the design of Telespazio TemiSat (launched in August 1993). During 2006-2007, he joined Galilean Plus (Rome, Italy) as chief scientist, and participated in the program of the Italian Space Agency for lunar explorations. To date, he has published about 120 research papers and reports. He was a COSPAR-Associate in 2002-2007. In 2009 and 2014, he served as managing guest editor of Acta Astronautica special issues. He wrote the book Fast Solar Sailing, Astrodynamics of Special Sailcraft Trajectories, Space Technology Library 30, Springer 2012. Since spring 2013, he has been a guest lecturer on the physics of in-space propulsion at the Dept. of Astronautical Engineering of University of Rome ‘La Sapienza’.  Les Johnson is a physicist at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, where he serves as the Senior Technical Advisor for the Advanced Concepts Office.  He was a Co-Investigator on the Japanese T-Rex space tether experiment, the Principal Investigator of the NASA ProSEDS mission, and the first manager of NASA's In-Space Propulsion Technology Project.  He holds three patents and was thrice awarded NASA's Exceptional Achievement Medal.  He is a TEDx speaker, was the featured "interstellar explorer" in National Geographic's January 2013 issue, and a member of the Advisory Board for The Journal of the British Interplanetary Society.  Les and his wife, Carol, have two children and live in Madison, Alabama (a satellite community of Huntsville - the original "Rocket City, USA!").Greg Matloff  is a leading expert in possibilities for interstellar propulsion , especially  near-Sun solar-sail trajectories that might ultimately enable interstellar travel, and is an astronomy professor with the physics department of New York City College of Technology, CUNY, a consultant with NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, a Hayden Associate of the American Museum of Natural History and a Member of the International Academy of Astronautics. He co-authored with Les Johnson of NASA and C Bangs Paradise Regained (2009), Living Off the Land in Space (2007) and has authored Deep-Space Probes (edition 1: 2000 and edition 2: 2005).  As well as authoring More Telescope Power (2002), Telescope Power (1993), The Urban Astronomer (1991), he co-authored with Eugene Mallove The Starflight Handbook. (1989). His papers on interstellar travel, the search for extraterrestrial artifacts, and methods of protecting Earth from asteroid impacts have been published in JBIS, Acta Astronautica, Spaceflight, ,Space Technology,  Journal of Astronautical Sciences, and Mercury. His popular articles have appeared in many publications, including Analog and IEEE Spectrum. In 1998, he won a $5000 prize in the international essay contest on ETI sponsored by the National Institute for Discovery Science. . He served on a November 2007 panel organized by Seed magazine to brief Congressional staff on the possibilities of a sustainable, meaningful space program. Professor Matloff is a Fellow of the British Interplanetary Society. He has chaired many technical sessions and is listed in numerous volumes of Who’s Who. In 2008, he was honored  as Scholar on Campus at New York City College of Technology.  In addition to his interstellar-travel research, he has contributed to SETI (the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence), modeling studies of human effects on Earth’s atmosphere, interplanetary exploration concept analysis, alternative energy, in-space navigation, and the search for extrasolar planets. 

Contents 6
Dedication 8
Foreword 10
Foreword to the First Edition 12
Preface to the First Edition 14
Preface to the Second Edition 18
Acknowledgments 22
About the Authors 24
Part I: Space Engines: Past and Present 26
1: An Historical Introduction to Space Propulsion 27
A Bronze Age Astronaut 28
Early Science Fiction The First Rocket Scientist
Perhaps He Wanted to Meet the “Man in the Moon” 29
The Dawn of the Space Age 30
Further Reading 36
2: The Rocket: How It Works in Space 37
Newtonian Mechanics and Rocket Fundamentals 37
Inertia—Objects Resist Changes in Motion 37
Force and a Most Influential Equation 38
Actions and Reactions 38
Linear Momentum: A Conserved Quantity 39
The Rocket Equation 40
Staged Rockets 41
Chemical rockets and Their Alternatives 43
Further Reading 45
3: Rocket Problems and Limitations 46
Limits of the Chemical Rocket 46
Nuclear and Solar Thermal Rockets: An Improvement with Issues 47
Solar and Nuclear Electric Rockets—The Ion Drive 49
Nuclear Direct: The Nonthermal Nuclear Rocket Concept 51
Nuclear Pulse: The Ultimate in Rocket Design 52
The Long-Term Icarus Design Concept 54
The Antimatter Propulsion Concept 55
Further Reading 56
4: Non-Rocket In-Space Propulsion 58
Aeroassisted Reentry, Deceleration, and Orbit Change 58
Planetary Gravity Assists: The First Extrasolar Propulsion Technique 60
Electrodynamic Tethers: Pushing Against the Earth’s Magnetic Field 61
Momentum Exchange Tethers: King David’s Slingshot to Space 63
MagSails and Plasma Sails: Riding the Solar Wind 63
Interstellar Ramjets and Their Derivatives 65
Further Reading 67
5: The Solar Sail Option: From the Oceans to Space 68
A Bit of Human History 68
Sea Sailing 70
Just a Few Words About Wind 70
How Can a Sailboat Navigate? 71
Early History of Space Sailing 74
The Amazing Nature of Light 75
Benefits for Spaceflight 78
Further Reading 80
Part II: Space Missions by Sail 82
6: Principles of Space Sailing 83
What Is a Solar Sail? 83
Momentum Transfer 84
How Can the Solar Wind Be Used for Sailing? 85
Further Reading 87
7: What Is a Space Sailcraft? 89
Sail Deployment 90
Sail Control 91
Communication System 91
Sailcraft Temperature 92
Payload 92
The Micro-Sailcraft Concept 93
Conclusion 94
8: Sails Versus Rockets 95
Rockets and Bombs 95
Toxic Fumes, Flammable Liquids and All that Stuff 99
Complicated Plumbing, Big Tanks and Turbo-Machinery 100
Running Out of Gas (Not!) 102
References 103
9: Exploring and Developing Space by Sailcraft 104
Near-Term (2015–2025) Sailcraft Mission Options 104
Solar Storm Monitoring 104
Pole Sitters 109
Near Earth Asteroid Reconnaissance 110
Magnetospheric Constellations 110
Target-Variable Magnetospheric Missions 110
Solar Polar Imager 111
L-1 Diamond 112
Mid-Term (2025–2040) Sailcraft Mission Options 112
Comet Rendezvous 112
Particle Acceleration Solar Orbiter 112
Mars Sample Return 113
Aerocapture Experiments 113
Extrasolar Probes 114
Far-Term (2040+) Sailcraft Mission Options 115
Human Exploration Sailships 115
Rearranging the Solar System 116
Space Mining 116
Oort Cloud Explorers 117
The Ultimate Future: Sailships to the Stars! 117
Relativistic Starflight 118
The Nuclear Option 119
Solar Sail Starships 120
Further Reading 121
References 121
10: Riding a Beam of Light 123
Laser Sailing 124
Microwave Sailing 126
Particle-Beam Sail Propulsion 128
Further Reading 129
Part III: Construction of Sailcraft 130
11: Designing a Solar Sail 131
Types of Solar Sails 131
Sail Physics Requires Some Design Commonality 131
Three-Axis Stabilized Solar Sails 131
Spin-Stabilized “Solid” Solar Sails 134
Spin-Stabilized “Heliogyro” Solar Sails 136
How to Maneuver a Sailcraft 137
What Is Spacecraft Attitude? 137
Classifying Attitude Analysis Items 138
Sail Attitude Control Methods 140
Method 1: Relative Displacement between Barycenter and Center of Pressure 140
Method 2: Using Pairs of a Segmented Sail 141
Method 3: Utilizing Small Sails Located at the Boom Ends 141
Method 4: Very Small Rockets 142
Method 5: Changing Sail Reflectance 142
Conclusion 143
References 144
12: Building a Sailcraft 145
Using Today’s Technologies 145
Russia’s Space Mirrors 146
Germany Advances Sail Technology in the 1990s 146
Cosmos and LightSail: The Planetary Society Put Its Money on the Table 147
NASA Gets Serious About Solar Sails 148
Japan Sails in Space 150
The UK Enters the Race 151
Current Solar Sail Technology: Where We Stand Today 151
Using Emerging Technologies 153
Using Ultimate Technologies 158
Further Reading 159
References 159
13: Progress to Date 160
Pioneering Designs 160
The Role of Space Agencies 162
Private Initiatives 167
Further Reading 169
14: Future Plans 171
The Next 25 Years 171
United States 171
Japan 173
Russia 173
Europe 173
Why Does It Take So Long To Fly A New Propulsion System? 175
Reason 1: Timescale 175
Reason 2: Science 177
Reason 3: Risk 177
The Next 50 Years 177
The Next 100 Years 178
References 178
Part IV: Breakthroughs in Space 179
15: The JAXA IKAROS Mission as a Technological Breakthrough 180
Launch from Earth 180
En-route to Venus 182
The Extended Mission 184
Appendix: Some Data about the IKAROS Sail 184
Further Reading 185
16: The NanoSAIL-D2 NASA Mission 187
The Groundwork 187
The Flight 189
Some Results from the NanoSail-D2 Mission 190
Application of NanoSail-D2 Technology 192
References 192
17: New Projects in Progress 193
Mission to Jupiter and the Trojan Asteroids 193
Asteroid Diversion 197
The Gravity Tractor 197
Kinetic NEO Deflection Using the Solar Sail 198
Some Other Solar-Sail Related Approaches to NEO Diversion 199
Further Reading 200
Part V: Space Sailing: Some Technical Aspects 201
18: Space Sources of Light 202
Further Reading 215
References 216
19: Modeling Thrust from Electromagnetic Radiation Pressure 217
Main Symbols and Acronyms 217
Frames of Reference 218
Phenomena Transferring Momentum 220
Thrust Acceleration Features 224
Behavior of the Thrust Acceleration Components 227
Thrust Acceleration in the Heliocentric Inertial Frame 229
Further Reading 232
References 233
20: Sailcraft Trajectories 234
Motion Equations 234
General Keplerian Orbits 236
Interplanetary Transfers 240
Non-Keplerian Orbits 245
Many-Body Orbits 247
Fast and Very Fast Sailing 249
Further Reading 256
References 256
21: Sails in the Space Environment 257
Manufacturing: The Environment of Damage and Risk 257
Launch: Shake, Rattle, Roll, and Outgas 258
Low Earth Orbit: “No-Man’s-Land” for Solar Sails 260
The Inner Solar System: At Home for Solar Sails (But Not a Safe Harbor) 261
Close Solar Approaches: Increased Thrust—But at What Cost? 262
State-of-the-Art Materials 267
Next-Generation Materials Needs 268
Summary 269
Further Reading 269
Glossary 270
Index 276