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.


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    Title :

    Solar Sail Propulsion for Interplanetary Small Spacecraft


    Contributors:
    L. Johnson (author)

    Publication date :

    2018


    Size :

    5 pages


    Type of media :

    Report


    Type of material :

    No indication


    Language :

    English





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