Shade sails are not a fundamentally new concept, even if they have only been used very rarely up until now. They work like sails on a boat, only instead of using the wind on Earth, they use the sun’s constant radiation pressure. The forces that can be called up are not great, but there is definitely decent potential over long distances and long periods of time.
And most planetary missions aren’t about speed anyway. This is also shown, for example, by the new Juice mission, with which the European ESA is sending a probe to the moons of Jupiter. This was launched in April last year and will not arrive at the gas giant until 2031. Until then, a complicated trajectory, including several swing-by maneuvers on other celestial bodies, leads through the solar system.
Module fleets on tour
The concept of the researchers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory is by no means far-fetched. Solar sails and miniaturization “have advanced enough over the past decade to enable inspiring and affordable missions that are reaching farther and faster into the outer reaches of our solar system,” the report says. The researchers refer to the merging of these two technologies as the Sundiver concept.
The goal is to develop fast, cost-effective and maneuverable sailing craft that can travel outside the ecliptic plane. This opens up new possibilities for affordable exploration of the solar system paper, which the scientists recently published. And if the instruments needed are too big to fit in a mini-probe, whole fleets of modules could be sent out and only assembled at the target.
- NASA wants to send fleets of small probes through space with solar sails.
- Solar sails use the sun’s radiation pressure to generate energy over long distances.
- Researchers at the Jet Propulsion Labs want to develop a new concept “Sundiver”.
- The goal is fast, cost-efficient and manoeuvrable sailing vehicles.
- New opportunities for affordable exploration of the solar system.
- Fleets can also be sent in modules that only assemble at the destination.
See also:
Galaxy, Space, Space, Nasa, Universe, Mars, Earth, Planet, Stars, World, Globe, Earth, Galaxy, Starry Sky, Night Sky, Planets, Shooting Stars, Planet Earth, Constellation, Wormhole, Warp, Worlds
