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Research Paper On The Sunjammer Mission

1002 Words5 Pages

Ryan Wisch
ESS 102
Research Paper
10/14/14
A crew of astronauts is on a research mission to the sun. The crew’s objective is to launch a probe into a solar prominence and take readings on an abnormally large sunspot. The crew mission goes awry when the prominence turns out to be a coronal mass ejection. With their space craft’s solar sail damaged they must make an emergency landing on a terrestrial planet based on the planetary characteristics such as dense atmosphere verses thin atmosphere. They land on Mars and have to buy more solid rocket fuel so they can reenter space. They then use there ion engine to propel them back to their home colony on Saturn’s moon Titan.
Solar sails were fist theorized by the German Astronomer Johannes …show more content…

Each of the two engines has a fuel tank of 1,000 pounds; the total weight of the OMS engines and fuel combined is 2,520 pounds [6]. The Sunjammer mission, who is scheduled for some time in 2014, will attempt to send a 13,000 square foot solar sail into orbit [7]. Sunjammer, while being the largest solar sail humans have ever attempted to send to space, will only weigh 70 pounds [7]. If the space shuttle orbiter had used Sunjammer instead of an OMS it could have reduced the weight of the shuttle by 2,450 pounds [6] [7]. This would have decreased the cost of the mission by 24,500,000 dollars in fuel cost alone. Solar sails are much less expensive than traditional OMSs however a solar sail craft will need assistance to get into …show more content…

This is very important factor in solar sails. The thinner the material the larger and lighter the solar sail can be. This will allow for a more effective solar sail that is cheaper to send to space because of the reduced weight and will accelerate faster due to its larger surface area. The material, CP-1, is a temperature resistant material that is made with Mylar covered in an extremely thin coat of aluminum [3]. The more reflective the material is the more photons will be deflected which means it will more effectively move the space craft [3]. While solar sails are much lighter than traditional rockets, they lack the quick acceleration of a traditional

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