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Design rules and scaling for solar sails
| Content Provider | NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) |
|---|---|
| Author | Zeiders, Glenn W. |
| Copyright Year | 2005 |
| Description | Useful design rules and simple scaling models have been developed for solar sails. Chief among the conclusions are: 1. Sail distortions contribute to the thrust and moments primarily though the mean squared value of their derivatives (slopes), and the sail behaves like a flat sheet if the value is small. The RMS slope is therefore an important figure of merit, and sail distortion effects on the spacecraft can generally be disregarded if the RMS slope is less than about 10% or so. 2. The characteristic slope of the sail distortion varies inversely with the tension in the sail, and it is the tension that produces the principle loading on the support booms. The tension is not arbitrary, but rather is the value needed to maintain the allowable RMS slope. That corresponds to a halyard force about equal to three times the normal force on the supported sail area. 3. Both the AEC/SRS and L Garde concepts appear to be structurally capable of supporting sail sizes up to a kilometer or more with 1AU solar flux, but select transverse dimensions must be changed to do so. Operational issues such as fabrication, handling, storage and deployment will be the limiting factors. |
| File Size | 861285 |
| Page Count | 11 |
| File Format | |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://archive.org/details/NASA_NTRS_Archive_20050209955 |
| Archival Resource Key | ark:/13960/t0jt4mt0r |
| Language | English |
| Publisher Date | 2005-04-25 |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Subject Keyword | Spacecraft Propulsion And Power Fabrication Solar Sails Mean Square Values Distortion Solar Flux Spacecraft Design Figure of Merit Ntrs Nasa Technical Reports ServerĀ (ntrs) Nasa Technical Reports Server Aerodynamics Aircraft Aerospace Engineering Aerospace Aeronautic Space Science |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |