Concept of Rotationally Skew Fold Membrane For Spinning Solar Sail

Abstract

A concept of rotationally skew fold is proposed for the spinning solar sail to meet with the structural properties. The structural properties of the rotationally skew fold membrane are examined from the view point of packaging properties, deployment characteristics, and atness of the deploying membrane with experiment models. The results indicated that the rotationally skew fold membrane has advantageous for stable deployment with easy packaging, although slightly higher rotational rates are required for the full deployment. The similarity non-dimensional parameter was also derived with the large deformation theorem of a spinning plate. I. Introduction The structural properties of deployable membrane for spinning solar sail are requested for designing the solar sail to meet the mission requirements, as the total weight, thrust efcienc y, deployment characteristics, and so on. A concept of rotationally skew fold is proposed for the spinning solar sail to meet with the structural properties. The structural properties of the rotationally skew fold membrane are examined for the packaging properties, deployment characteristics, and atness of the deploying membrane with experiment models. The similarity non-dimensional parameter was derived with the large deformation theorem of a spinning plate.