Design and application of solar sailing: A review on key technologies

Pengyuan Zhao, Chenchen Wu, Yangmin Li

Research output: Journal article publicationReview articleAcademic researchpeer-review

47 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Solar sail technology has been proposed and developed for space explorations with advantages of low launch cost, no-propellant consumption, and continuous thrust, which has great potentials in earth polar detection, interstellar explorations and etc. The development of solar sail has made significant progress in structural design, manufacturing, materials, orbit transfer, and stability control in the past few decades, which makes meaningful contributions to astronomy, physics, and aerospace science. Technological breakthroughs of Solar Radiation Pressure (SRP) propulsion and interstellar transfer have been achieved in current solar sail missions. However, there are still many challenges and problems need to be solved. This paper attempts to summarize the research schemes and potential applications of solar sailing in space missions from the viewpoint of key technologies, so as to provide an overall perspective for researchers in this field. Analyses of the key technologies of solar sailing system design are provided. Finally, challenges and prospective development of solar sailing are discussed.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)125-144
Number of pages20
JournalChinese Journal of Aeronautics
Volume36
Issue number5
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - May 2023

Keywords

  • Deployment mechanism
  • Membrane structures
  • Solar radiation pressure
  • Solar sails
  • Solar sail missions

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