Similarity Criteria and Associated Design Procedures for Scaling Solar Sail Systems

摘要

THE NASA In-Space Propulsion program has promoted thendevelopment of solar sail propulsion technology through thendevelopment of subsystems, operations tools, analytical andncomputational models, and ground-based testing. Solar sails cannpotentially provide low-cost propulsion and operate without the usenof propellant, allowing access to non-Keplerian orbits throughnconstant thrust. A solar sail is a gossamer structure: a membrane-nbased large, lightweight structure. The primary objective of the sail isnto convert emitted solar pressure into thrust on a spacecraft. This solarnpressure is extremely small, however, on the order of 9N=km2natn1 astronomical unit, resulting in a need for the sail to be very large andnlightweight to achieve reasonable accelerations.