SEMINAR ABSTRACT

TOPIC: SOLAR SAIL.

ABSTRACT:
Hundreds of space missions have been launched since the last lunar mission, including
several deep space probes that have been sent to the edges of our solar system. However, our
journeys to space have been limited by the power of chemical rocket engines and the amount
of rocket fuel that a spacecraft can carry. Today, the weight of a space shuttle at launch is
approximately 95 percent fuel. What could we accomplish if we could reduce our need for so
much fuel and the tanks that hold it?
International space agencies and some private corporations have proposed many methods of
transportation that would allow us to go farther, but a manned space mission has yet to go
beyond the moon. The most realistic of these space transportation options calls for the
elimination of both rocket fuel and rocket engines -- replacing them with sails. Yes, that's
right, sails.
Solar-sail mission analysis and design is currently performed assuming constant optical and
mechanical properties of the thin metalized polymer films that are projected for solar sails.
More realistically, however, these properties are likely to be affected by the damaging effects
of the space environment. The standard solar-sail force models can therefore not be used to
investigate the consequences of these effects on mission performance. The aim of this paper
is to propose a new parametric model for describing the sail film's optical degradation with
time. In particular, the sail film's optical coefficients are assumed to depend on its
environmental history, that is, the radiation dose. Using the proposed model, the optimal
control laws for degrading solar sails are derived using an indirect method and the effects of
different degradation behaviours are investigated for an example interplanetary mission.

Submitted
by
ALLAM BHANU TEJA
(B120881EC)
A - Batch
References:
[1] . solar sail(Wikipedia) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_sail.
[2] . Wilcox, B.H., "Hybrids of solar sail, solar electric, and solar thermal propulsion for
solar-system exploration," in Aerospace Conference, 2012 IEEE , vol., no., pp.1-8, 3-10
March2012 doi: 10.1109/AERO.2012.6187292