Abstract
A range of mission concepts will be discussed which explore the use of solar sail propulsion for high-energy small body missions. It will be shown that a modest sized solar sail can enable high energy small body sample return from extremely demanding targets, while a larger solar sail can quickly deliver a significant payload to high eccentricity comets. Lastly, it will be shown that potentially hazardous near Earth asteroids can be deflected using kinetic energy impacts by using a solar sail to deliver the impactor to a high-energy retrograde orbit.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | Proceedings of the 56th International Astronautical Congress |
| Edition | IAC-05-A3.5.B.05 |
| Publication status | Published - 2006 |
Keywords
- solar sails
- propulsion
- mechanical engineering
- control systems
- guidance systems