Full Information on Solar Sail And Ion propulsion System

1. Ion Propulsion System & Solar
sail
By
Dudekula Jamal
Aeronautical

2. Contents
Ion Propulsion System
 Introduction and basic
definitions
 Parts Of Ion Propulsion
System
 Ion Propulsion Process
 Propellants
 Electrostatic Ion Thrusters
 Applications
 Advantages
 Disadvantages
Solar Sail
 Introduction
 History- cosmos_1
 Solar sail types
 Core Of The Solar Sail- Cube sat
 Test’s before launching
 Solar Sail Design Challenges
 Future Solar Sailing
 Applications
 Advantages and Disadvantages

3. Ion Propulsion
System

4. What is Ion Propulsion ?
 Ion propulsion is a technology that involves ionizing a gas to propel a craft.
 Instead of a spacecraft being propelled with standard chemicals, the gas xenon is
given an electrical charge, or ionized.
 It is then electrically accelerated to a speed of about 30 km/second.
 When xenon ions are emitted with the help of ion thrusters at high speed as exhaust
from a spacecraft, they push the spacecraft in the opposite direction.

5. Definitions
 ION : An ion is simply an atom or molecule that is electrically
charged.
 IONIZATION : It is a process of converting an atom or molecule
into ions. It can done by either adding or removing electrons then
they become cation (+ve) or anion (-ve) respectively.
 ION THRUSTER : An ion thruster is form of electric propulsion
used for spacecraft propulsion that creates thrust by accelerating
ions.
Ion Thruster

7. Parts Of IPS(Ion Propulsion system)
 Ion propulsion system consists of the following five parts :
1. Power source
2. Power processing unit
3. Propellant management system
4. The control Computer
5. Ion thruster

8. 1. Power source
 power source can be any source of electrical power, but solar and nuclear are the
primary options.
 A solar electric propulsion system (SEP) uses sunlight and solar cells for power
generation.
 A nuclear electric propulsion system (NEP) uses a nuclear heat source coupled to
an electric generator.

9. 2.Power processing unit (PPU)
 The PPU converts the electrical power generated by the power source into the power
required for each component of the ion thruster.
 It generates the voltages required by the discharge chamber and the high currents
required for the hollow cathodes.

10. 3. Propellent management system (PMS)
 The PMS controls the propellant flow from the propellant tank to the thruster and
hollow cathodes.
 Modern PMS units have evolved to a level of sophisticated design that no longer
requires moving parts.

11. The control Computer & Ion Thrusters
4. The Control Computer
 The control computer controls
and monitors system
performance.
5. Ion Thrusters
 This processes the propellant and
power to perform work.
 They are of two types:
1)Electrostatic and
2)Electromagnetic

12. Ion Thruster

13. Ion propulsion process
 The fuel used by modern ion engines is xenon gas which is four times heavier
than air.
 When the ion engine is running, electrons are emitted from a hollow cathode
tube called as discharge cathode.
 These electrons enter a magnet-ringed chamber, where they strike the xenon
atoms.
 These electrons hits the electrons of xenon atom as it consists of 54 electrons.
This results in the formation of ions in discharge chamber.
 High-strength magnets are placed along the discharge chamber walls so that as
electrons approach the walls, they are redirected into the discharge chamber by
the magnetic field.

14. Cont..
 At the rear of the chamber, a pair of metal grids is charged positively and negatively,
respectively, with up to 1,280 volts of electricity.
 The force of this electric charge exerts a strong electrostatic pull on the xenon ions.
 The xenon ions shoot out the back of the engine at high speeds which propels the spacecraft
in opposite direction and produces thrust force.
 The force of this electric charge exerts a strong electrostatic pull on the xenon ions.
 The xenon ions shoot out the back of the engine at high speeds which propels the spacecraft
in opposite direction and produces thrust force.

16. Propellant
 Many current designs use Xenon gas due to its low ionization energy, reasonably
high atomic number, inert nature, and low erosion.
 Ion thrusters use inert gas for propellant, eliminating the risk of explosions.
 The usual propellant is xenon, but other gases such as krypton and argon may be
used.

17. Electrostatic Propulsion

18. Electrostatic ion thruster
 This type of thruster commonly use xenon gas which has no charge and it is ionized by
bombarding with energetic electrons.
 These electrons are provided from hot cathode filament and accelerated into electric field of
cathode fall to anode.
 The electrons can be accelerated by the oscillating electric field induced by an alternating
magnetic field of a coil which results in a self-sustaining discharge and omits any cathode.
 The positive ions are extracted after bombarding of electrons with xenon atoms, and these
ions are accelerated by electrostatic forces.

19. Cont..
 The electric fields used for acceleration are generated by electrodes positioned at the end of the
thruster ,such set of electrodes are called as ion optics or grids.
 Some ion thrusters use a two-electrode system, where the upstream electrode(screen grid) is
charged highly positive, and the downstream electrode(accelerator grid) is charged highly
negative.
 Since the ions are generated in a region of high positive and the accelerator grid's potential is
negative, the ions are attracted toward the accelerator grid and are focused out of the discharge
chamber through the apertures, creating thousands of ion jets.
 The stream of all the ion jets together is called the ion beam. And The thrust force is the force
that exists between the upstream ions and the accelerator grid.

20. Cont..
 The exhaust velocity of the ions in the beam is based on the voltage applied to the optics.
 Because the ion thruster expels a large amount of positive ions, an equal amount of
negative charge must be expelled to keep the total charge of the exhaust beam neutral.
 A second hollow cathode called the neutralizer is located on the downstream of the
thruster and expels the needed electrons.
 Thus how an electrostatic thruster produces thrust with the help of ions and propells the
spacecraft.

21. Amount Of Thrust Produced
 At full throttle, the ion engine will consume 2,500 watts of electrical power, and
output 1/50th of a pound of thrust.
 Ion thrusters are capable of propelling a spacecraft up to 90,000 meters per
second (over 200,000mph).
 Thrusters can deliver up to 0.5 Newtons (0.1 pounds) of thrust.

22. APPLICATIONS
Ion thrusters have many applications for in-space propulsion.
 The best applications of the ion thrusters make use of the long lifetime when
significant thrust is not needed.
 This type of propulsive device can also be used for interplanetary and deep space
missions where time is not crucial.
 Helps Spacecraft Cruise Solar System on the Cheap.

23. ADVANTAGES
 On propulsion could be used for a manned mission to Mars.
 Ion propulsion makes efficient use of the onboard fuel by accelerating it to a velocity ten times
that of chemical rockets.
 The ion propulsion system, although highly efficient, is very gentle in its thrust.
 Less expensive launch vehicle is required when compared to chemical propulsion.
 Less amount of propellant carrying tanks which reduces weight of spacecraft.
 With xenon, it is possible to reduce propellant mass onboard a spacecraft by up to 90 percent.
 The advantages of having less onboard propellant include a lighter spacecraft, and, since launch
costs are set based on spacecraft weight, reduced launch cost.
 Additional velocity can be obtained.
 Greater life time when compared to other propulsive devices.
 Continuous thrust over a very long time can build up a larger velocity than traditional chemical
rockets.
 High specific impulse , high efficiency.

24. Disadvantages
 Unlike a chemical propulsion system ion propulsion produces gentle amount of thrust but
for a long duration.
 Ion propulsion system is mostly applicable only for deep space missions.
 Cost of propellant used is very expensive.
 Complex power conditioning ,high voltages.
 Single propellant.
 Low thrust per unit area.

25. Questions
1. Ion Propulsion Electrically Accelerated to a speed about ?
Ans - 30 Km/sec
2. What all the primary power sources of ion Engines?
Ans – Solar and Nuclear
3. Fuel used in the modern ion engines is ?
Ans - Xenon Gas
4. Name the 5 parts of the Ion propulsion system?
Ans - Power source, Power processing unit, Propellant management system, The computer
control ,Ion thruster
5. Ion thrusters are capable of propelling a spacecraft up to How many meters per second ?
Ans- 90,000 m/sec

26. Solar sail

27. What Is Solar Sail ?
 Solar sails are a form of spacecraft propulsion
using radiation pressure exerted by sunlight
on large mirrors.
 A useful analogy may be a sailing boat ; the
light exerting a force on the mirrors is akin to a
sail being blown by the wind.
 Other names are
Light sails
Photon sails

28. Introduction
 The most common material in current designs is aluminized 2 µm Kapton film.
It resists the heat of a pass close to the Sun and still remains reasonably
strong. The aluminum reflecting film is on the Sun side.
 Solar sails use the sun's energy as a method of propulsion—flight by light. Light is
made of packets of energy called photons.
 Solar sail spacecraft capture light momentum with large, lightweight mirrored
surfaces—sails. As light reflects off a sail, most of its momentum is
transferred, pushing on the sail.

29. History
 In 1873, James Clerk Maxwell first demonstrated that sunlight exerts a small
amount of pressure as photons bounce off a reflective surface. This kind of
pressure is the basis of all modern solar sail designs.
 In 1993, the Russian Space Agency conducted a successful solar sail experiment,
called Znamya, which was deployed from an unmanned Progress vehicle after it
departed from their Mir Space Station. A 20-meter circular sail-like reflector was
successfully deployed; a follow-up experiment in 1999 collided with a deployed
spacecraft antenna and was destroyed.

30. History
Cosmos- 1
 World's First Solar Sail Launch planned in
June 21st 2005.
 privately funded and least launch cost.
 Russia Russian modified
ICBM(intercontinental ballistic missile)
Volna rocket launch from a nuclear
submarine in the Barents Sea Boost to
altitude of 825 km.

32. History
 In may 2010, Japanese space agency (JAXA) successfully launched IKAROS .
 IKAROS (Inter - planetary Kite – craft Accelerated by Radiation of Sun)
 has a polyimide sheet of 200 m^2
 is diagonal spinning square sail 20m.
 NanoSail-D was a small satellite which was to have been used by NASA's Ames
Research Center to study the deployment of a solar sail in space on 3 August 2008
but it was unable to achieve the orbit because the rocket was not achieving the
thrust and it fell down.

33. History
 NanoSail-D2 was built as a ground spare for NanoSailD. Following the launch
failure of NanoSail-D in August 2008, NanoSail-D2 was launched as NanoSail-D
on a Minotaur IV rocket in November 2010, and deployed from the FASTSAT
satellite.

34. Sail: Using Sunlight
 Sail pointed at Sun, experiences force
Sun pushes the sail directly away
 Reflected light generates reaction
force (much like reaction force of
rocket)

37. Solar sail types
Three Types Of Solar Sails Available
 Square Sail
 Heliogyro Solar Sail
 Spinning Disc Sail

38. Square sail
 Large, flat reflective film
 4 spars from hub
 Optimum Design
 Packing/deployment issues
 No spin to maintain tension

39. Heliogyro Solar Sail
 Heliogyro sails are composed of
several vanes, extending directly
from a central hub, that “roll out”
because of the spinning motion of
the craft.
12 vanes (7 km long)
Extend from central hub
 Canada Solar Sail Project Steer by
shifting ballast mass (center mass
misaligned from center of solar
pressure ) create torque to turn.

40. Spinning Disc Sail
Circular sails
 Large, spinning disks Support by
light weight tension lines carry loads
except at the center
 Structure to carry payload, control
system, sail developing spacecraft
like these
-illuminate cities in Arctic circle
-future solar sails

41. Core Of The Solar Sail
 A CubeSat is a type of miniaturized satellite for space research that is made
up of multiples of 10×10×10 cm cubic units.
 CubeSats have a mass of no more than 1.33 kilograms per unit, and often use
commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components for their electronics and
structure.
 The cube structure is an enclosed aluminum box with solar cells clamped on
the outside walls. Antennas are deployed perpendicular to the faces at the
corners. Internals include sensors, a camera and printed circuit boards

42. CubeSat

43. Major CubeSat Components
 Payload
 C&DH (Command and Data Handling),
 COMM (Communications)
 EPS (Electrical Power System)
 ADC (Attitude Determination and Control),
 Structures and Mechanisms
 Batteries
 Solar Panels & Arrays
 GSE(ground support equipment)
 Software

44. Tests before launching
 Ground deployment tests
 Suborbital tests
 Attitude (orientation) control tests

45. Ground deployment tests
 Fold-Deployment method is the key technology of the solar sail mission. Whether
the sail can deploy leading by the booms in orbit is the key to the mission success. To
make sure the deploy process is stable and reliable.
 To verify the fold-deploy method used in hundred meter scale solar sail, an 8×8m
prototype was designed, and ground deployment test is conducted on this prototype.
 In the prototype, the SMC boom in the 160× 160m solar sail concept was replaced by
a complete air inflatable boom.
 The air inflatable boom is a 1mm thick air-tube constructed by kapton-Al-kapton
membrane. To increase the rigidity of the boom, four curve steel enhance stripes
were added inside the tube

46. Suborbital tests
 The suborbital deployment test, followed by a full orbital mission , the
deployment test was to feature a spacecraft with only two petals and
carrying a camera to observe deployment.

47. Attitude (orientation) control tests
 An active attitude control system (ACS) is essential for a sail craft to achieve and
maintain a desired orientation.
 The required sail orientation changes slowly (often less than 1 degree per day) in
interplanetary space, but much more rapidly in a planetary orbit.
 Attitude control is achieved by a relative shift between the craft's center of pressure
and its center of mass.
 This can be achieved with control vanes, movement of individual sails, movement
of a control mass, or altering reflectivity.

48. Mcq’s
1.What should be the weight of cubesat’s approximately?
a. More than 1.33 Kg/unit
b. Less than 1.33 Kg/unit
c. 1.33 Kg/unit
d. None Of the Above
Ans: Option b
2.How many vanes does a Holiogyro solar sail consists of?
a. 12 vanes
b. 8 vanes
c. 14 vanes
d. 6 vanes
Ans: Option a

49. 3. What is an attitude control system ?
a. It is the system that achieves &maintains the desired Orientation.
b. The main function of attitude control system include maintaining accurate satellite velocity
throughout the life span of the system.
c. None Of the above.
Ans: Option a

50. Solar Sail Design Challenges
 The single most important characteristic of solar sails is their large size—often
measured in kilometers—necessary to achieve acceptable accelerations and
transfer times.
o Packaging
o Deployment
o Stiffening

51. Packaging
 One method for packaging membranes is by wrapping
the membrane around a central hub, by folding along
spiraling crease lines.
 An important benefit is the deployment from the center
outwards. It is noted that the thickness of the sheet
material can be taken into account numerically when
designing the wrapping pattern, thereby optimizing the
packaging efficiency.

52. Deployment
 The deployment of the membrane and the booms can either
be sequential or simultaneous. The former requires a more
complex control procedure, but ensures sufficient boom
stiffness before any compressive or bending loads are
exerted by the unfurling sails.

53. Stiffening
 Once deployed, the film must remain relatively flat in order to maximize its propulsive
capability and thus requires a stiffening method that is scalable with the sail size.

54. Future Solar Sailing
 Helio storm 2016-2020
 Sail size: 150x150 m
 Heliostorm--solar storms warnings Earth based communication systems Sail maintain
closer to Sun – more warning.
 SPI (Solar Polar Imager) 2020-2035
 Sail size: 150x150 m
 SPI space craft to orbit above Sun Pole Maintaining position easy for a solar sail
 impossible conventional.
 Interstellar Probe 2031
 Sail Size: 250x250 m IP Fly close to Sun then >200AU
 Solar system interacts with other solar systems or not.

55. Applications
 Exploration of the solar system and beyond.
 Delivery of science instruments/observatories.
 Maintenance of special 'artificial' orbits.
 Delivery of large cargos and people.
 Store solar energy/reflectors for commercials.
 Planetary Protection.

56. Advantages
 It requires no fuel.
 Use of low resource spacecraft.
 Longer life in space.
 Less in mass.
 Sail acting as a solar cell, which creates an electrical current (just the way normal
solar panels work). This electricity can be used for many purposes: IKAROS uses it
simply to power payload (sensors, communication, etc.).

57. Disadvantages
 Sail craft must operate in orbits where their turn rates are compatible with the
orbits, which is generally a concern only for spinning disk configurations.
 Sail operating temperatures are a function of solar distance, sail angle, reflectivity,
and front and back emissivity . A sail can be used only where its temperature is
kept within its material limits.
 They lose thrust the further it is from the Sun.
 They are large, delicate, and cannot be used on any craft intended to land on
another body unless jettisoned or retracted.

58. Summary
 ION PRPULSION : Ion propulsion is a technology that involves ionizing a gas to propel a craft.
Instead of using Standard Chemicals.
 When xenon ions are emitted with the help of ion thrusters at high speed as exhaust from a spacecraft,
they push the spacecraft in the opposite direction.
 ION THRUSTER : An ion thruster is form of electric propulsion used for spacecraft propulsion that
creates trust by accelerating ions.
 Ion propulsion system parts :
1. Power source
2. Power processing unit
3. Propellant management system
4. The control computer
5. Ion thruster

59. Ion Propulsion system

60. Electrostatic thrusters
 Ion thrusters are capable of propelling a spacecraft up to
90,000 meters per second (over 200,000mph)
 The usual propellant is xenon, also other gases like krypton
and argon may be used.
 Advantages
 Disadvantages
 Applications of ion thrusters

61. History about Solar sail
 In 1873, James Clerk Maxwell first demonstrated that sunlight exerts a small amount of
pressure as photons bounce off a reflective surface. This kind of pressure is the basis of all
modern solar sail designs.
 In may 2010, Japanese space agency (JAXA) successfully launched IKAROS .
 COSMOS-1 World's First Solar Sail Launch planned in June 21st 2005.
Types Of Solar Sails Available
 Square Sail
 Heliogyro Solar Sail
 Spinning Disc Sail
 A CubeSat is a type of miniaturized satellite for space research that is made up of multiples
of 10×10×10 cm cubic units. And components of cubesat.

62.  Tests before launching
 Ground deployment tests
 Suborbital tests
 Attitude (orientation) control tests
 Solar Sail Design Challenges
o Packaging
o Deployment
o Stiffening
 Future Solar Sailing
o Helio storm 2016-2020
o SPI (Solar Polar Imager) 2020-2035
o Interstellar Probe 2031

63.  Applications
 Advantages
 Disadvantages of solar sail’s.

64. Mcq’s
1.Advantages of Solar sail
a. Less in mass
b. Longer life
c. Both a and b
d. None of the above
Ans. Option c - Both a and b
2. Solar sail lose thrust when it is further from the Sun.
a. True
b. False
Ans. True

65. 3. Which Sail is can’t spin to maintain the tension ?
a. Square Sail
b. Heliogyro Solar Sail
c. Spinning Disc Sail
Ans. Option a- Square Sail
4.Solar sail’s require fuel to work.
a. True
b. False
Ans. False
Reason: It requires no fuel is one of its main advantage.

66. Questions
1. What is the world’s first Solar Sail ?
Ans – Cosmos- 1.
2. Name the three Types Of Solar Sails Available
Ans - Square Sail, Heliogyro Solar Sail, Spinning Disc Sail.
3. What is the name of miniaturized satellite for space research that is made up of multiples of
10×10×10 cm cubic units ?
Ans – Cube sat.
4. Name any 2 Solar Sail Design Challenges
Ans – Packaging, Deployment and Stiffening.

67. “
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