Circumnavigating the sun with diffractive solar sails

A solar sail based on the physics of diffracted light provides a means of harnessing opto-mechanical momentum for in-space propulsion. As an example a heuristic roll maneuver of a diffractive sail is found to produce a spiral trajectory that provides a high orbital inclination angle at a close solar orbit. A comparison of five-year spiral trajectories of ideal diffractive and reflective sails reveals that the former achieves a higher solar inclination angle and a smaller orbital radius than the latter. We envision placing a constellation of diffractive solar sails around the sun to collect images and other data for space weather monitoring and heliophysics science. For illustration purposes we consider a series of 14 [kg], 400 [m(2)] lightsails at various inclination angles, all positioned at 0.32 [AU] within six years. This paper may inspire materials scientists to design and fabricate thin novel optical metamaterial films that efficiently diffract light at large angles across the solar spectrum for future solar sails. Mission designers may also be prompted to imagine alternatives beyond reflective sails.

Automated summary

This paper explores the application of solar sails based on the physics of diffracted light for in-space propulsion. By comparing trajectories of different types of sails, it is found that diffractive solar sails achieve higher solar inclination angles and smaller orbital radii compared to reflective sails. The authors envision using a constellation of diffractive solar sails for space weather monitoring and heliophysics science around the sun.