Abstract
Solar Sail propulsion has been validated in space (IKAROS, 2010) and soon several more solar-sail propelled spacecraft will be flown. Using sunlight for spacecraft propulsion is not a new idea. First proposed by Frederick Tsander and Konstantin Tsiolkovsky in the 1920's, NASA's Echo 1 balloon, launched in 1960, was the first spacecraft for which the effects of solar photon pressure were measured. Solar sails reflect sunlight to achieve thrust, thus eliminating the need for costly and often very-heavy fuel. Such "propellantless" propulsion will enable whole new classes of space science and exploration missions previously not considered possible due to the propulsive-intense maneuvers and operations required.
Highlights
Solar sail propulsion uses sunlight to propel vehicles through space by reflecting solar photons from a large, mirror-like sail made of a lightweight, highly reflective material
Other inner solar system missions for the more distant future include the use of large solar sails to reduce the total mass to low Earth orbit, and so total cost, required for the human exploration of Mars
CubeSail is a nano-solar sail mission based on the 3U CubeSat standard, which is currently being designed and built at the Surrey Space Centre, University of Surrey and funded by Astrium
Summary
Solar sail propulsion uses sunlight to propel vehicles through space by reflecting solar photons from a large (often > 100 m per side), mirror-like sail made of a lightweight, highly reflective material. Since the Sun supplies the necessary propulsive energy solar sails require no onboard propellant, thereby significantly increasing useful payload mass. Once released from the booster vehicle, Sunjammer will perform a propulsive burn and boost itself to an earth escape orbit. Upon obtaining this trajectory, the sail will be deployed.
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