Jovian Trojan Asteroid Exploration by Solar Power Sail-craft

Harvesting Near Earth Asteroid Resources Using Solar Sail Technology

There may be differences between this version and the published version. You are advised to consult the publisher's version if you wish to cite from it. Near Earth asteroids represent a wealth of material resources to support future space ventures. These resources include water from C-type asteroids for crew logistic support; liquid propellants electrolytically cracked from water to fuel crewed...

Moving an asteroid with electric solar wind sail

The electric solar wind sail (E-Sail) is a new propulsion method for interplanetary travel which was invented in 2006 and is currently under development. The E-Sail uses charged tethers to extract momentum from the solar wind particles to obtain propulsive thrust. According to current estimates, the E-Sail is 2-3 orders of magnitude better than traditional propulsion methods (chemical rockets a...

Solar Sail Trajectory Design for a Multiple Near-Earth Asteroid Rendezvous Mission

Electric Solar Wind Sail Mass Budget Model

The electric solar wind sail (E-sail) is a new type of propellantless propulsion system for Solar System transportation, which uses the natural solar wind for producing spacecraft propulsion. This paper discusses a mass breakdown and a performance model for 5 an E-sail spacecraft that hosts a scientific payload of prescribed mass. In particular, the model is able to estimate the total spacecraf...

Accessing the Solar System With a Small Solar Sail

Solar sailing is a proposed means of space propulsion in which a reflective surface collects momentum from solar photons to accelerate a vehicle. The current trend within the solar sailing community is to increase sail size as solar sailing technologies advance, allowing for larger payloads and higher accelerations. However, with the miniaturization of modern payloads, sail sizes can be dramati...