Abstract
We examine the theoretical implications of incorporating metasurfaces on solar sails, and the effect they can have on the forces applied to the sail. This would enable a significant enhancement over state-of-the- art attitude control by demonstrating a novel, propellant-free and low-mass approach to induce a roll torque on the sail, which is a current limitation in present state-of-the-art technology. We do so by utilizing anomalous optical reflections from the metasurfaces to generate a net in-plane lateral force, which can lead to a net torque along the roll axis of the sail, in addition to the other spatial movements exhibited by the sail from solar radiation pressure. We characterize this net lateral force as a function of incidence angle. In addition, the influence of the phase gradients and anomalous conversion efficiencies characteristics of the metasurfaces are independently considered. The optimum incidence angle that corresponded with the maximum net lateral-to-normal force ratio was found to be −30° for a metasurface exhibiting 75% anomalous conversion efficiency with a phase gradient of 0:71k0.
Highlights
A pioneering example that paved the way for future development of solar sail research was the Interplanetary Kite-craft Accelerated by Radiation Of the Sun (IKAROS), made by the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)
The specular and anomalous reflection components are scaled by an anomalous conversion efficiency factor, ηanom
We have shown that anomalous reflections from metasurfaces can be used to create tangential forces, and to alter the attitude of a solar sail
Summary
A pioneering example that paved the way for future development of solar sail research was the Interplanetary Kite-craft Accelerated by Radiation Of the Sun (IKAROS), made by the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). In order to utilize solar sail technology to its full potential, a low mass alternative method to attitude control would be ideal. Current solar sail attitude control systems do not effectively control movement about the roll axis (the axis normal to the sail surface). An alternative method for solar sail attitude control could be to utilize metasurfaces. One phenomena exhibited by metamaterial surfaces that is of particular interest, is anomalous reflection of light. The angle of reflection is altered, allowing light to be reflected at a wide variety of angles, even parallel to the metamaterial surface. The fact that the incident and anomalously reflected waves are no longer symmetric to each other with respect to the normal axis of the surface means that there will be a net tangential force. The further the metasurfaces are from the center of the sail, the larger their contributions will be to the torque along the roll axis
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