Solar sails have the potential to provide mass and cost savings for spacecraft traveling within the inner solar system. Companies like L'Garde have demonstrated sail manufacturability and various in-space deployment methods. The purpose of this study was to evaluate a current Mars sample return architecture and to determine how cost and mass would be reduced by incorporating a solar sail propulsion system. The team validated the design proposed by L'Garde, and scaled the design based on a trajectory analysis. Using the solar sail design reduced the required mass, eliminating one of the three launches required in the original architecture.
Reduction of Martian Sample Return Mission Launch Mass with Solar Sail Propulsion
2013
22 pages
Report
No indication
English
Reduction of Martian Sample Return Mission Launch Mass with Solar Sail Propulsion
Springer Verlag | 2014
|Reduction of Launch Mass with Solar Sail Propulsion
NTIS | 2013
|Reduction of Launch Mass with Solar Sail Propulsion
NTRS | 2013
|