Solar sails are among the most studied members of the ultra-lightweight and inflatable (Gossamer) space structures family due to their potential to provide propellentless propulsion. They are comprised of ultra-thin membrane panels that, to date, have proven very difficult to experimentally characterize and numerically model due to their reflectivity and flexibility, and the effects of gravity sag and air damping. Numerical models must be correlated with experimental measurements of sub-scale solar sails to verify that the models can be scaled up to represent full-sized solar sails. In this paper, the surface shapes of five horizontally supported 25 micron thick aluminized Kapton membranes were measured to a 1.0 mm resolution using photogrammetry. Several simple numerical models closely match the experimental data, proving the ability of finite element simulations to predict actual behavior of solar sails.


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    Title :

    Experimental and Numerical Correlation of Gravity Sag in Solar Sail Quality Membranes


    Contributors:

    Conference:

    45th AIAA/ASME/ASCE/AHS/ASC Structures, Structural Dynamics and Materials Conference ; 2004 ; Palm Springs, CA, United States


    Publication date :

    2004-01-01


    Type of media :

    Preprint


    Type of material :

    No indication


    Language :

    English




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