Controlled-emission solar tabs for attitude solar sailing

摘要

Solar tabs (46, 48) are provided which have thermal emissivity ( epsilon ) and absorptivity ( alpha ) properties designed to increase the attitude-control torques (246-252, 260) that can be generated with rotatable wings (22, 24) in a spacecraft (20). These increased torques (246-252, 260) enhance the ability to offset attitude-disturbance torques which typically tend to alter the attitude of a spacecraft (20) from a desired attitude. The tabs (46, 48) include highly absorptive and nonemissive front faces (52), highly emissive back faces (54) and a high thermal conductivity between the front faces (52) and the back faces (54). IMAGE