One kilometer (1 km) electric solar wind sail tether produced automatically

2013 ◽  
Vol 84 (9) ◽  
pp. 095102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henri Seppänen ◽  
Timo Rauhala ◽  
Sergiy Kiprich ◽  
Jukka Ukkonen ◽  
Martin Simonsson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Solar Wind ◽  
Electric Solar Wind Sail

Stability and Control of Spinning Electric Solar Wind Sail in Heliostationary Orbit

2019 ◽  
Vol 42 (2) ◽  
pp. 425-431 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Bassetto ◽  
Giovanni Mengali ◽  
Alessandro A. Quarta
Keyword(s):  
Solar Wind ◽  
Stability And Control ◽  
And Control ◽  
Electric Solar Wind Sail

Wire-to-wire bonding of μm-diameter aluminum wires for the Electric Solar Wind Sail

2011 ◽  
Vol 88 (11) ◽  
pp. 3267-3269 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henri Seppänen ◽  
Sergiy Kiprich ◽  
Risto Kurppa ◽  
Pekka Janhunen ◽  
Edward Hæggström
Keyword(s):  
Solar Wind ◽  
Wire Bonding ◽  
Electric Solar Wind Sail

scholarly journals Increased electric sail thrust through removal of trapped shielding electrons by orbit chaotisation due to spacecraft body

2009 ◽  
Vol 27 (8) ◽  
pp. 3089-3100 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Janhunen
Keyword(s):  
Solar Wind ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Electron Gun ◽  
Solar Wind Stream ◽  
Space Propulsion ◽  
Positive Potential ◽  
Trapped Electrons ◽  
Natural Mechanism ◽  
Electric Solar Wind Sail ◽  
Positively Charged

Abstract. An electric solar wind sail is a recently introduced propellantless space propulsion method whose technical development has also started. The electric sail consists of a set of long, thin, centrifugally stretched and conducting tethers which are charged positively and kept in a high positive potential of order 20 kV by an onboard electron gun. The positively charged tethers deflect solar wind protons, thus tapping momentum from the solar wind stream and producing thrust. The amount of obtained propulsive thrust depends on how many electrons are trapped by the potential structures of the tethers, because the trapped electrons tend to shield the charged tether and reduce its effect on the solar wind. Here we present physical arguments and test particle calculations indicating that in a realistic three-dimensional electric sail spacecraft there exist a natural mechanism which tends to remove the trapped electrons by chaotising their orbits and causing them to eventually collide with the conducting tethers. We present calculations which indicate that if these mechanisms were able to remove trapped electrons nearly completely, the electric sail performance could be about five times higher than previously estimated, about 500 nN/m, corresponding to 1 N thrust for a baseline construction with 2000 km total tether length.

Invited Article: Electric solar wind sail: Toward test missions

2010 ◽  
Vol 81 (11) ◽  
pp. 111301 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Janhunen ◽  
P. K. Toivanen ◽  
J. Polkko ◽  
S. Merikallio ◽  
P. Salminen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Solar Wind ◽  
Electric Solar Wind Sail

scholarly journals On the feasibility of a negative polarity electric sail

2009 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 1439-1447 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Janhunen
Keyword(s):  
Solar Wind ◽  
Negative Polarity ◽  
Electron Gun ◽  
Electron Field Emission ◽  
Space Propulsion ◽  
Positive Potential ◽  
Field Emission Current ◽  
Electron Field ◽  
Electric Solar Wind Sail ◽  
Positively Charged

Abstract. An electric solar wind sail is a recently introduced propellantless space propulsion method whose technical development has also started. In its original version, the electric sail consists of a set of long, thin, centrifugally stretched and conducting tethers which are charged positively and kept in a high positive potential of 20 kV by an onboard electron gun. The positively charged tethers deflect solar wind protons, thus tapping momentum from the solar wind stream and producing thrust. Here we consider a variant of the idea with negatively charged tethers. The negative polarity electric sail seems to be more complex to implement than the positive polarity variant since it needs an ion gun instead of an electron gun as well as a more complex tether structure to keep the electron field emission current in check with the tether surface. However, since this first study of the negative polarity electric sail does not reveal any fundamental issues, more detailed studies would be warranted.

Possible Trajectories for Electric Solar Wind Sail Validation

2019 ◽  
Vol 98 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-145 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorenzo Niccolai ◽  
Alessandro A. Quarta ◽  
Giovanni Mengali ◽  
Francesco Petrucciani
Keyword(s):  
Solar Wind ◽  
Electric Solar Wind Sail
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