Exploring the Kuiper Belt with sun-diving solar sails

摘要

We discuss a possibility to survey many Kuiper Belt Objects (KBO) with a single launch using a few small-scale spacecraft, each equipped with solar sails, which could be deployed from a single interplanetary bus at the perihelion of that craft's solar orbit. Each small-scale spacecraft would carry a scientific payload and would be directed to intersect one or more KBOs. The proposed scenario is the following: the sails are carried as a payload to a relatively small heliocentric distance (0.1-0.3 AU); once at the perihelion, the sails are deployed. Besides photonic propulsion due to the solar radiation, another mechanism could be convenient: thermal desorption, a physical process of mass loss which can provide additional thrust as heating liberates atoms embedded on the surface of a solar sail. Therefore, a solar sail with a mass of desorptive coating of the same order as the payload would experience additional propulsive force that would dramatically increase the distance that the sail can travel in a year.