A solar sail backed by NASA could take science to new heights
Like a NASA study continuing to push the boundaries, a new solar sail concept selected by the agency as a demonstration mission to be developed could take science to new heights.
The Diffractive Solar Sailing project was selected for the Phase III study of NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program.
Phase III seeks to strategically transfer NIAC concepts that have the greatest impact to NASA, other government agencies, or commercial partners.
“When we dare farther into the cosmos than ever before, we need innovative, cutting-edge technologies to guide our missions,” said the NASA director. Bill Nelson. “NASA’s Innovative Advanced Concepts program helps unlock visionary ideas – like new solar sails – and bring them closer to reality.”
Like a sailboat that uses the wind to cross the ocean, solar sails use the pressure of sunlight to carry a ship through space. Current reflective solar sails are typically very large and very thin, and are limited by the direction of sunlight, forcing trade-offs between power and navigation. Diffractive light sails would use small gratings embedded in thin films to take advantage of a property of light called diffraction, which causes light to propagate as it passes through a narrow aperture. This would allow the spacecraft to make more efficient use of sunlight without compromising maneuverability.
“Exploring the universe means we need new tools, new ideas and new ways to go places,” he said. Jim Reuter, Head of NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD) at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “Our goal is to invest in these technologies throughout their lifecycle to support a strong innovation ecosystem.”
The new Phase III award will give the research team $ 2 million over two years to continue developing the technology in preparation for a possible future demonstration mission. The project is led by Amber Dubill of Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland.
“NIAC allows us to promote some of the most creative technology concepts in the aviation industry,” he said Mike LaPointe, Acting NIAC Program Program Director at NASA Headquarters. “Our goal is to make the change possible, and diffractive solar sailing promises to do just that in a number of exciting new mission applications.”
Diffractive light sailing would expand the capacity of solar sails beyond what is possible with the tasks currently being developed. The project is led by Amber Dubill From Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland. The feasibility of the concept was previously investigated under the NIAC Phase I and Phase II Awards, led by Dr. Grover Swartzlander From the Rochester Institute of Technology in New York, who will continue as a researcher in the project. Under previous awards, the team designed, created and tested a variety of diffractive sail materials; conducted experiments and designed new navigation and guidance systems for a potential diffractive light sail orbiting the Sun’s poles.
Phase III work will optimize the sail material and perform ground tests to support this conceptual solar task. Orbits across the sun’s north and south poles are difficult to achieve using conventional spacecraft propulsion. Light diffractive light sails, driven by the constant pressure of sunlight, could place science spacecraft in orbit around the Sun’s poles to advance our understanding of the Sun and improve our predictability in space.
“Diffractive solar sailing is a modern version of the decades-old view of light sails. While this technology can enhance numerous task architectures, it is poised to strongly influence the need of the heliophysics community for unique solar observation capabilities,” Dubill said. “Thanks to the combined expertise of our team in optics, aviation, traditional solar sailing and metamaterials, we hope scientists can see the Sun in an unprecedented way.”
NIAC supports visionary research ideas through several phases of advancing research. NASA announced 17 Phase I and Phase II proposal selections in February 2022. NIAC is funded by NASA’s STMD, which is responsible for developing the new multidisciplinary technologies and capabilities the agency needs to fulfill its current and future missions.
Source: ANI