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Solar Sail Propulsion for Interplanetary Small Spacecraft
- Publication Year :
- 2018
- Publisher :
- United States: NASA Center for Aerospace Information (CASI), 2018.
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Abstract
- NASA is developing solar sail propulsion for use by small robotic interplanetary spacecraft. Solar sails use sunlight to derive useful thrust by reflecting solar photons from a large, mirror-like sail made of a lightweight, highly reflective material. Using reflected sunlight to obtain thrust instead of relying on the use of reaction mass has many advantages for exploring the inner solar system, including extremely large total delta V (velocity difference) and significant launch window flexibility.
- Subjects :
- Spacecraft Propulsion And Power
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- Database :
- NASA Technical Reports
- Publication Type :
- Report
- Accession number :
- edsnas.20180003091
- Document Type :
- Report