Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-qxdb6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T13:02:05.536Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Solar-powered space flight

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 February 2016

M. H. D. Kemp
M. H. D. Kemp*
Affiliation:
London
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The aim of this paper is analyse the practicality or otherwise of solar-powered propulsion (after launch using conventional chemical rocketry) for a space vehicle’s late pre-orbital trajectory phase, for orbital transfer and for post-orbital flight. We introduce a ‘concept’ vehicle that in principle permits the use of solar-powered propulsion in each of these stages. Some of the technical challenges that such a vehicle might face are analysed, including the problem of how to keep a large ultra-low mass optical concentrator arrangement sufficiently accurately positioned in different parts of such a trajectory.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Aeronautical Journal , Volume 109 , Issue 1102 , December 2005 , pp. 619 - 630
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Aeronautical Society 2005 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Kaye, G.W.C. and Laby, T.H., Tables of Physical and Chemical Constants, 15th edition, Longman Scientific & Technical.Google Scholar
2. NASA solarsail.jpl.nasa.gov/introduction/design-construction.html.Google Scholar
3. Team Encounter www.teamencounter.com/starship/spacecraft_sailcraft.asp.Google Scholar
4. Klein, M.V. and Furtak, T.E., Optics, 1986, John Wiley & Sons.Google Scholar
5. Kemp, M.H.D., Optical Imaging Device Design for Solar Powered Flight and Power Generation, 2003, PCT Patent Application PCT/GB2003/004516.Google Scholar
6. Kemp, M.H.D., Ultra-high Resolution Imaging Devices, 2001, PCT Patent Application PCT/GB2001/01161.Google Scholar
7. US National Research Council Committee on Thermionic Research and Technology. Thermionics Quo Vadis? An Assessment of the DTRA’s Advanced Thermionics Research and Development Program, 2001, National Academy Press.Google Scholar
8. Winston, R.. Nonimaging optics, Scientific American, March 1991.Google Scholar