Solar Sail

SOLAR
SAIL
Presented by
ed by DHEERAJ MURALI
M A , 7316
INTRODUCTION
 400 years back Johannes Kepler
proposed the idea
 A spacecraft without an engine
 Pushed along directly by light from
the Sun
 Reflects light off giant mirror-like
sails
 Doesn’t need fuel, so weight is
reduced
 Keeps accelerating over almost
WORKING
 Lig h t is m a d e u p o f
p a cke ts o f e n e rg y
kn o w n as
“ photons ”
 In cid e n t ra ys of
su n lig h t re fle ct o ff
th e so la r sa il a t a n
a n g le
 C hange in
m o m e n tu m
Two components of force
i. In the direction of the incident sunlight
ii. In a direction normal to the incident
rays
Components tangent to the sail surface cancel out
Components normal to the surface add up to produce
the thrust normal to the sail surface

Reflected photons energy flux = energy flux prior
to the interaction, but a different momentum

vector
This altered momentum vector that gives the ship
an accelerating force

WHY SOLAR SAILS ?
 A Sail of 1 sq km are would only feel about 9
Newtons
 Normal space shuttle main engine produce
Ø 1.67 million N of force during liftoff
Ø 2.1 million N of thrust in a vacuum
 How Solar sail is effective
i. no noticeable friction
ii.space is very empty and clean so
there is plenty of room
iii.Continuous supply of energy

DISTANCE v/s TIME
40 Au in 6 years
Distance from sun to Pluto

= 32 . 1 AU
NASA ’ s New Horizon mission
= 10 yrs
SECTION A
SECTION A :- DETAILS
Initial acceleration
low
Due to effect of
gravity and low
pressure increase
rate
C O M P A R IT IV E S T U D Y
 In 100 days, a sail-propelled craft could
reach 14,000 kilometres per hour
 In just three years, a solar sail could reach
over 150,000 miles per hour.
 At that speed, you could reach Pluto in less
than five years
 Far away from the Sun, the highly focused
beams of lasers can be directed at the
sails to boost them onto interstellar
trajectories.
COMPONENTS
 There are three components to a solar sail-
powered spacecraft
i. Continuous force exerted by
sunlight
ii.A large, ultrathin mirror
iii.A separate launch vehicle
 Ultra thin mirror :- large flat smooth sheets
of very thin film, supported by ultra-
lightweight structures
 Side of film which faces the sun is coated
with a highly reflective material
 Some times reinforcement are also
SAIL DESIGNS
vHeliogyro
 Plastic-film blades deployed from rollers
 Film held out by centrifugal forces
 No mass advantage over a square sail
 Attractive because the method of

deploying the sail is simpler than a Square
sail.

Spinning Disk Sail (Ring sails)

a)Panels are
 attached to the edge of a rotating
spacecraft
have slight gaps, about 1% - 5% of the
total area
b)Lines would connect the edges of sails
c) Weights in the middles of these lines would
pull the sails taut
S A IL D E P L O Y M E N T
BOOM STRUCTURE
COILED BOOM UNCOILED BOOM

SAIL MATERIALS
Essential Qualities
i. Lightweight
ii. Highly reflective
iii.Tolerate extreme
temperatures
 Materials
a) Aluminium
b)Titanium
c)Nickel
d)Silicon Monoxide
A L U M IN IU M
 High reflectivity, low density, a reasonable
melting point, and a very low vapour
pressure
 Doesn’t agglomerate due to formation of an
oxide layer on the aluminium
 Creep is a factor of concern
 Aluminium films of the minimum thickness
required for reflectivity may
i. Prove too weak to support the stresses
imposed during fabrication
ii.Creep under load at elevated
 S tre n g th e n e d b y a d d in g a re in fo rcin g
film o f a stro n g e r , m o re re fra cto ry
m a te ria l.
 G o o d re in fo rcin g film fe a tu re s : S tro n g ,
Lig h t, a n d E a sy to d e p o sit
 N o n e e d n o t fo r ch e m ica l co m p a tib ility
w ith a lu m in iu m
 M e ta ls, su ch a s n icke l, m a y re fle ct w e ll
a n d a lso p ro vid e re in fo rce m e n t
Titanium and Nickel
 Films of pure titanium from 150 to 2,000

TITANIU
nm thick were found to have strengths

of 460 to 620 Npa
 Titanium has enough strength and
temperature tolerance to make it an
M
attractive choice as a reinforcing film.`


NICKE
 Strength of nickel film exceeds 2,000 NPa

at a thickness of 70 nanometers.
L
 Nickel’s density is a disadvantage for use

in sails
Silicon Monoxide and Boron
 Satellite thermal control coatings
SiO2
 Refractory, Low density, High strength in

extremely thin film form
 Reinforcing film material

 Strength of 620 MPa

BORON
 Can be made as thin as 4 nanometres


CASE STUDY :
NANOSAIL-D
 Nano satellite - or Cubesat
 Designed to test the
potential for solar sails
in atmospheric braking
 Used an ultra-thin and
light polymer named
CP1
 Deployed in low-Earth
orbit, about 650 km
 Launched by Falcon-1
launch vehicle in August
2008
 Immediately after ejection today, a timer
started a three-day countdown.
 On reaching zero count , all four booms
will spring out from the small satellite,
and within five seconds the sail will be
fully extended
 Final size of 100 square foot (10 square
meter) sail-span.

APPLICATIONS
 Solar weather stations

 Monitoring the
geomagnetic storms
 Launching small
satellites
 Remote sensing
 Probes to end of Milky

way
 Search for extra
terrestrial life

Merits and Demerits
 Longer distance can be covered

D E M E R I M E R IT
 Requires no fuel
S
 Faster than a chemical rocket


 Don't work well in low Earth orbit below

about 800 km altitude due to erosion
or air drag.
TS
 Sails have to be physically large

 Payload size is often small.
 Difficult to carry manned missions
CONCLUSIONS
 S o la r sa ilte ch n o lo g y w ille ve n tu a lly p la y a ke y
ro le in lo n g -d ista n ce N A S A m issio n s
 E xp lo ra tio n o f sp a ce is sim ila r to th e ta le o f th e
" Tortoise and the Hare ," with rocket -propelled
sp a ce cra ft b e in g th e h a re .
 in th is ra ce , th e ro cke t-p ro p e lle d sp a ce cra ft w ill
q u ickly ju m p o u t, m o vin g q u ickly to w a rd its
d e stin a tio n .
 O n th e o th e r h a n d , a ro cke t le ss sp a ce cra ft
p o w e re d b y a so la r sa ilw o u ld b e g in its
jo u rn e y a t a slo w b u t ste a d y p a ce , g ra d u a lly
p ickin g u p sp e e d
R EFER EN CES
 NanoSail-D: A solar sail demonstration mission by Les
Johnson, MarkWhorton , AndyHeaton , RobinPinson ,
GregLaue , CharlesAdams Acta Astronautica 68 (2011)
571–575
 Overview of Advanced Space Propulsion via Solar Photon
Sailing by Giovanni Vulpetti, International Academy of
Astronautics

 www.solarsails.org
 www.nasa.gov
 www.solarscience.co
 www.nanosail.org


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SOLAR

Components normal to the surface add up to produce

the thrust normal to the sail surface

to the interaction, but a different momentum

Distance from sun to Pluto

 No mass advantage over a square sail

 Attractive because the method of

COILED BOOM UNCOILED BOOM

 Films of pure titanium from 150 to 2,000

nm thick were found to have strengths

attractive choice as a reinforcing film.`

 Strength of nickel film exceeds 2,000 NPa

 Nickel’s density is a disadvantage for use

 Refractory, Low density, High strength in

 Strength of 620 MPa

 Can be made as thin as 4 nanometres

 Solar weather stations

 Probes to end of Milky

 Longer distance can be covered

 Faster than a chemical rocket

 Don't work well in low Earth orbit below

 Sails have to be physically large

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