Special Issue: Advances in CubeSat Sails and Tethers (1st Edition)

Aerospace 2024
Andris Slavinskis, Pekka Janhunen

Currently, most space missions rely on chemical and electric propulsion systems, both of which are limited by the propellent tank volume whose “wet mass” is launched from the Earth. In the field of propellantless propulsion with space sails and tethers, we are exploring and developing propulsion methods which employ the natural forces originating in the Sun or in or around planets—the photon pressure, the atmospheric drag, the Coulomb drag and the Lorentz force. Reflective light sails use the photon pressure for interplanetary travel or atmospheric drag for deorbiting in low Earth orbit (LEO). Electric solar wind sails (E-sails) use the solar wind’s Coulomb drag for interplanetary propulsion and the plasma brake for ionospheric LEO deorbiting with the same Coulomb drag interaction. Electrodynamic tethers interact with planet’s magnetic field for exerting the Lorentz force.

Keywords
Electric sails
DOI
10.3390/aerospace11121016
Hyperlink
https://www.mdpi.com/2226-4310/11/12/1016

Slavinskis, A., Janhunen, P. Special Issue: Advances in CubeSat Sails and Tethers (1st Edition). Aerospace, 2024, Vol. 11, No. 12, Article number 1016. ISSN 2226-4310. Available from: doi:10.3390/aerospace11121016

Publication language
English (en)