Invited Article: Electric solar wind sail: Toward test missions

Abstract

The electric solar wind sail (E-sail) is a space propulsion concept that uses the natural solar wind dynamic pressure for producing spacecraft thrust. In its baseline form, the E-sail consists of a number of long, thin, conducting, and centrifugally stretched tethers, which are kept in a high positive potential by an onboard electron gun. The concept gains its efficiency from the fact that the effective sail area, i.e., the potential structure of the tethers, can be millions of times larger than the physical area of the thin tethers wires, which offsets the fact that the dynamic pressure of the solar wind is very weak. Indeed, according to the most recent published estimates, an E-sail of 1 N thrust and 100 kg mass could be built in the rather near future, providing a revolutionary level of propulsive performance (specific acceleration) for travel in the solar system. Here we give a review of the ongoing technical development work of the E-sail, covering tether construction, overall mechanical design alternatives, guidance and navigation strategies, and dynamical and orbital simulations.

Electric solar wind sail optimal transit in the circular restricted three body problem

“…The results discussed in this paper are part of an European research project [3,17,18] regarding the study and development of an E-sail thruster, and are intended to contribute to the definition of the set of possible scenarios [4] within which a selection is to be made for testing the practical feasibility of the propulsion system in a real mission. For this reason no performance comparison is made here with other propellantless thrusters, such as solar sails, nor with other low-thrust propulsion systems, as, for example, electric thrusters.…”

“…The Electric Solar Wind Sail (E-sail) is an innovative form of spacecraft propulsion system that exploits the solar wind plasma momentum by repelling positive ions using a number of long tethers biased at a high positive voltage [1][2][3]. Similar to other continuous thrust propulsion systems, an E-sail enables a wide range of new mission concepts [4] such as, for example, the generation of Artificial Equilibrium Points (AEPs) within an heliocentric mission scenario.…”

Aalto-1 nanosatellite – technical description and mission objectives

“…The third satellite payload, the electrostatic plasma brake, designed and built by the Finnish Meteorological Institute, is based on the so-called e-sail concept, developed to enable fast and cheap interplanetary travel (Janhunen et al, 2010). The main purpose of the plasma brake is to demonstrate the physical concept behind this e-sail concept, as it remains unproven so far.…”

Adaptive Fuzzy Sliding-Mode Attitude Controller Design for Spacecrafts with Thrusters

“…A spacecraft equipped with thrusters can effectively control its acceleration direction [8,13], which in turn implies that the maneuverability/controllability of the spacecraft can be greatly enhanced during the stage when the spacecraft is flying in the outer space; whereas Janhunen et al [14] propose a space propulsion concept of electric solar wind sail using the natural solar wind dynamic pressure for producing spacecraft thrust.…”