Roller-Reefing Solar Sail for Fuelless Station Keeping
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current solar sail power generation systems require fuel for station keeping and attitude control, limiting their mobility and payload capacity, while also struggling to efficiently utilize large solar sail areas for energy production and distribution.
Innovation Solution
The integration of thin film solar cell arrays into the solar sail foils, combined with the 'Roller-Reefing' technology for attitude control and energy conversion, allows for fuel-less station keeping and high precision steering, enabling the full sail area to be used for power production and distribution without compromising mobility, and allows for the formation of larger power stations through automatic connection of multiple spacecraft.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If solar sail power stations use thrusters for station keeping and attitude control, then they can maintain positioning and orientation, but they require large amounts of fuel that limits mission duration and payload capacity
Solution Approach 1:
The solar sail spacecraft uses its own solar sail area for attitude control by selectively deploying or retracting sail sections, rather than relying on external thrusters. The solar radiation pressure on the sail itself provides the control force, making the system self-sufficient and eliminating fuel consumption for station keeping.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention changes the control mechanism from chemical propulsion (thrusters) to optical propulsion (solar radiation pressure on sail). By adjusting the sail area configuration through roller-reefing mechanisms, the spacecraft achieves attitude control without consuming propellant, fundamentally changing the energy parameter from finite fuel to renewable solar energy.
2Stability of the object's composition
If solar sail spacecraft use spin stabilization for steering, then they can maintain orientation, but they cannot point towards both Sun and Earth simultaneously and are difficult to steer precisely
Solution Approach 1:
The solar sail is divided into multiple independently controllable sections or quadrants. By differentially deploying or retracting specific sail sections using roller-reefing mechanisms, the spacecraft can generate torques about different axes, enabling precise attitude control and the ability to point towards multiple targets simultaneously without relying on overall spin stabilization.
3Productivity
If solar cell arrays are integrated into solar sail foils, then energy production increases, but the structural integrity and steering capability may be compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The invention uses thin-film solar cells integrated directly into the solar sail foil structure. These flexible thin-film cells maintain the foil's flexibility and deployability while generating power. The roller-reefing mechanism is designed to accommodate the flexible nature of the thin-film solar cells, allowing the sail to be rolled and unrolled without compromising the structural integrity of the integrated solar cells.
4Productivity
If large solar sail areas are deployed for power generation, then energy production increases, but the spacecraft becomes more difficult to control and requires more fuel for station keeping
Solution Approach 1:
The invention employs dynamic roller-reefing mechanisms that can rapidly adjust the sail area configuration in response to control commands. This dynamic capability allows the spacecraft to control large solar sail areas by selectively deploying or retracting different sections, maintaining maneuverability and reducing the need for fuel-intensive station keeping even when large areas are deployed for power generation.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This solution enhances the energy production capabilities of solar sail spacecraft, enables efficient fuel-less station keeping and attitude control, and allows for the creation of mobile solar sail power stations that can be used for high-energy missions like asteroid exploration and satellite services, while reducing the need for fuel and extending mission duration.
Implementation Method 1
The solar sail carries already some solar cells for energy production on the sail foils. Ikaros, the Japanese solar sail spacecraft already in space, has shown that solar sailing by using solar radiation pressure works for acceleration.
Implementation Method 2
The integration of thin film solar cell arrays into the solar sail foils, combined with the 'Roller-Reefing' technology for attitude control and energy conversion, allows for fuel-less station keeping and high precision steering, enabling the full sail area to be used for power production and distribution
Data Source
AI summary
A solar sail spacecraft is designed to steer and move in space by using solar radiation pressure as a driving force, therefore allowing fuelless propulsion, station keeping and attitude control.A solar power satellite utilizes thrusters only to stay in an rather stationary orbit. Its purpose is, to collect energy and transfer it to a given location, usually to Earth.The intention of the present invention is to create a hybrid of a solar sail spacecraft and a power satellite for space based power generation and transmission, which is mobile and provides both, fuelless solar sailing and electric thrusters as means of propulsion.The mobile Solar Sail Power Station serves as solar energy collector and can be connected by docking with other power stations and with a transmitter unit for energy transmission, whereby the transmitter features its own fuelless pointing and attitude control devices.