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Wrinkling analysis of solar-photon sails.

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Bibliographic Details
Title:	Wrinkling analysis of solar-photon sails.
Authors:	Vulpetti, Giovanni¹ (AUTHOR) g.vulpetti.iaa@gmail.com, Apponi, Davide² (AUTHOR), Zeng, Xianguyan³ (AUTHOR), Circi, Christian² (AUTHOR)
Source:	Advances in Space Research. May2021, Vol. 67 Issue 9, p2669-2687. 19p.
Subjects:	Stochastic differential equations, Sails, Solar cycle, Sailing, Azimuth
Abstract:	This paper regards small/midsize square sails on which a field of wrinkles appears owing to the necessary sail-membrane operations before and during the deployment. We collected a large amount of data in our laboratory. Many ten thousands of measurements had been statistically processed for characterizing some sail's sampled membranes consisting of aluminized-polyimide layers (2.5 + 0.1) μ m thin, and loaded at vertices. Such samples have exhibited area and orientation alterations, as a whole, which can affect the propulsive acceleration of a sailcraft. Wrinkled-sail orientation has been given a thrust-specialized meaning for trajectory computation. Three-dimensional heliocentric minimum-time orbit transfer between Earth and Mercury orbits had been investigated. This had resulted in wrinkled -sail sailcraft moving on trajectories remarkably different from those ones of the corresponding ideal unwrinkled-sail sailcraft. Nevertheless, at least in the current framework, the most important result is that sail-wrinkled sailcraft's interplanetary trajectories could be optimized without resorting to stochastic differential equations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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Database:	Engineering Source

Description
Abstract:	This paper regards small/midsize square sails on which a field of wrinkles appears owing to the necessary sail-membrane operations before and during the deployment. We collected a large amount of data in our laboratory. Many ten thousands of measurements had been statistically processed for characterizing some sail's sampled membranes consisting of aluminized-polyimide layers (2.5 + 0.1) μ m thin, and loaded at vertices. Such samples have exhibited area and orientation alterations, as a whole, which can affect the propulsive acceleration of a sailcraft. Wrinkled-sail orientation has been given a thrust-specialized meaning for trajectory computation. Three-dimensional heliocentric minimum-time orbit transfer between Earth and Mercury orbits had been investigated. This had resulted in wrinkled -sail sailcraft moving on trajectories remarkably different from those ones of the corresponding ideal unwrinkled-sail sailcraft. Nevertheless, at least in the current framework, the most important result is that sail-wrinkled sailcraft's interplanetary trajectories could be optimized without resorting to stochastic differential equations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
ISSN:	02731177
DOI:	10.1016/j.asr.2020.07.016