It was shown that deployable ultra lightweight booms and extremely thin sail film materials can be handled and used to manufacture large solar sail structures. In a ground demonstration, within the joint DLR/ESA effort to pre-develop solar sail technology, the functionality of the deployment concept and associated mechanisms was demonstrated in simulated zero-g and ambient environmental conditions. Based on the successful completion of the pre-development project phase a low-cost flightvalidation of solar sail technology in earth orbit is the proposed next step. Once verified in orbit, a number of challenging deep-space science missions could benefit from this advanced propulsion concept as a low-cost delivery system with basically unlimited capability. Solar sail technology holds the promise of significantly enhancing, or even enabling, space exploration missions in the new millennium, by exploiting the space-pervading resource of solar radiation pressure.
Deployable structures - ultralightweight CFRP-booms for a solar sail
2001
6 Seiten, 10 Bilder, 1 Tabelle, 6 Quellen
Aufsatz (Konferenz)
Englisch
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