ESAIL: Electric SAIL propulsion technology was presented in late 2014
The ESAIL EU FP7 project (2011-2013) developed laboratory prototypes (TRL 4-5) of the key components of the E-sail. The project involved five countries, nine institutes and had a EU contributed budget of about 1.7 million euros
E-sail construction
• Positive tethers (10-20 km length made of 25-50 um wire, +20-40 kV voltage)
• Up to 1 Newton thrust (scales as 1/r) from 100-200 kg unit (30 km/s delta-v per year to 1000 kg spacecraft)
• Power consumption modest, scales as 1/r²
• Baseline approach uses non-conducting Auxiliary Tethers to stabilise flight without active control
• “Remote Units” at tips contain auxtether reels and spinup propulsion/spin control
Planned E-sail missions
• BCUBE: 3-U CubeSat in LEO with 1 km tether
– Demonstrate Plasma Brake deorbiting of the satellite
– Flight-validate hardware for ECUBE
• ECUBE: 3-U CubeSat in solar wind with 1 km tether
– Nearly identical with BCUBE, but different orbit
– Measure E-sail effect in solar wind (for example, lunar mission piggyback)
– Demonstrate simple E-sailing in solar wind
• OLCUBE: 3-U CubeSat near Lagrange L1 point for off-Lagrange solar wind monitoring
– First scientific/commercial application of E-sail: space weather prediction with longer warning time
•“Production-scale” E-sail demonstration mission (NEO?)
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The ESAIL EU FP7 project (2011-2013) developed laboratory prototypes (TRL 4-5) of the key components of the E-sail. The project involved five countries, nine institutes and had a EU contributed budget of about 1.7 million euros
E-sail construction
• Positive tethers (10-20 km length made of 25-50 um wire, +20-40 kV voltage)
• Up to 1 Newton thrust (scales as 1/r) from 100-200 kg unit (30 km/s delta-v per year to 1000 kg spacecraft)
• Power consumption modest, scales as 1/r²
• Baseline approach uses non-conducting Auxiliary Tethers to stabilise flight without active control
• “Remote Units” at tips contain auxtether reels and spinup propulsion/spin control
Planned E-sail missions
• BCUBE: 3-U CubeSat in LEO with 1 km tether
– Demonstrate Plasma Brake deorbiting of the satellite
– Flight-validate hardware for ECUBE
• ECUBE: 3-U CubeSat in solar wind with 1 km tether
– Nearly identical with BCUBE, but different orbit
– Measure E-sail effect in solar wind (for example, lunar mission piggyback)
– Demonstrate simple E-sailing in solar wind
• OLCUBE: 3-U CubeSat near Lagrange L1 point for off-Lagrange solar wind monitoring
– First scientific/commercial application of E-sail: space weather prediction with longer warning time
•“Production-scale” E-sail demonstration mission (NEO?)
