Electric Sail Test Cube–Lunar Nanospacecraft, ESTCube-LuNa: Solar Wind Propulsion Demonstration Mission Concept
The electric solar wind sail, or E-sail, is a propellantless interplanetary propulsion system concept. By deflecting solar wind particles off their original course, it can generate a propulsive effect with nothing more than an electric charge. The high-voltage charge is applied to one or multiple ce...
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| Format: | Article |
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MDPI AG
2024
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/153950 |
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| author | Slavinskis, Andris Palos, Mario F. Dalbins, Janis Janhunen, Pekka Tajmar, Martin Ivchenko, Nickolay Rohtsalu, Agnes Micciani, Aldo Orsini, Nicola Moor, Karl Mattias Kuzmin, Sergei Bleiders, Marcis Donerblics, Marcis Ofodile, Ikechukwu Kütt, Johan Eenmäe, Tõnis Allik, Viljo Viru, Jaan Halapuu, Pätris Kristmann, Katriin Sate, Janis Briede, Endija Anger, Marius Aas, Katarina Plonis, Gustavs Teras, Hans Allaje, Kristo Vaivads, Andris Niccolai, Lorenzo Bassetto, Marco Mengali, Giovanni Toivanen, Petri Iakubivskyi, Iaroslav Pajusalu, Mihkel Tamm, Antti |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences Slavinskis, Andris Palos, Mario F. Dalbins, Janis Janhunen, Pekka Tajmar, Martin Ivchenko, Nickolay Rohtsalu, Agnes Micciani, Aldo Orsini, Nicola Moor, Karl Mattias Kuzmin, Sergei Bleiders, Marcis Donerblics, Marcis Ofodile, Ikechukwu Kütt, Johan Eenmäe, Tõnis Allik, Viljo Viru, Jaan Halapuu, Pätris Kristmann, Katriin Sate, Janis Briede, Endija Anger, Marius Aas, Katarina Plonis, Gustavs Teras, Hans Allaje, Kristo Vaivads, Andris Niccolai, Lorenzo Bassetto, Marco Mengali, Giovanni Toivanen, Petri Iakubivskyi, Iaroslav Pajusalu, Mihkel Tamm, Antti |
| author_sort | Slavinskis, Andris |
| collection | MIT |
| description | The electric solar wind sail, or E-sail, is a propellantless interplanetary propulsion system concept. By deflecting solar wind particles off their original course, it can generate a propulsive effect with nothing more than an electric charge. The high-voltage charge is applied to one or multiple centrifugally deployed hair-thin tethers, around which an electrostatic sheath is created. Electron emitters are required to compensate for the electron current gathered by the tether. The electric sail can also be utilised in low Earth orbit, or LEO, when passing through the ionosphere, where it serves as a plasma brake for deorbiting—several missions have been dedicated to LEO demonstration. In this article, we propose the ESTCube-LuNa mission concept and the preliminary cubesat design to be launched into the Moon’s orbit, where the solar wind is uninterrupted, except for the lunar wake and when the Moon is in the Earth’s magnetosphere. This article introduces E-sail demonstration experiments and the preliminary payload design, along with E-sail thrust validation and environment characterisation methods, a cis-lunar cubesat platform solution and an early concept of operations. The proposed lunar nanospacecraft concept is designed without a deep space network, typically used for lunar and deep space operations. Instead, radio telescopes are being repurposed for communications and radio frequency ranging, and celestial optical navigation is developed for on-board orbit determination. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T09:42:54Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/153950 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| last_indexed | 2025-02-19T04:18:12Z |
| publishDate | 2024 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1539502025-02-04T02:02:00Z Electric Sail Test Cube–Lunar Nanospacecraft, ESTCube-LuNa: Solar Wind Propulsion Demonstration Mission Concept Slavinskis, Andris Palos, Mario F. Dalbins, Janis Janhunen, Pekka Tajmar, Martin Ivchenko, Nickolay Rohtsalu, Agnes Micciani, Aldo Orsini, Nicola Moor, Karl Mattias Kuzmin, Sergei Bleiders, Marcis Donerblics, Marcis Ofodile, Ikechukwu Kütt, Johan Eenmäe, Tõnis Allik, Viljo Viru, Jaan Halapuu, Pätris Kristmann, Katriin Sate, Janis Briede, Endija Anger, Marius Aas, Katarina Plonis, Gustavs Teras, Hans Allaje, Kristo Vaivads, Andris Niccolai, Lorenzo Bassetto, Marco Mengali, Giovanni Toivanen, Petri Iakubivskyi, Iaroslav Pajusalu, Mihkel Tamm, Antti Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences Aerospace Engineering The electric solar wind sail, or E-sail, is a propellantless interplanetary propulsion system concept. By deflecting solar wind particles off their original course, it can generate a propulsive effect with nothing more than an electric charge. The high-voltage charge is applied to one or multiple centrifugally deployed hair-thin tethers, around which an electrostatic sheath is created. Electron emitters are required to compensate for the electron current gathered by the tether. The electric sail can also be utilised in low Earth orbit, or LEO, when passing through the ionosphere, where it serves as a plasma brake for deorbiting—several missions have been dedicated to LEO demonstration. In this article, we propose the ESTCube-LuNa mission concept and the preliminary cubesat design to be launched into the Moon’s orbit, where the solar wind is uninterrupted, except for the lunar wake and when the Moon is in the Earth’s magnetosphere. This article introduces E-sail demonstration experiments and the preliminary payload design, along with E-sail thrust validation and environment characterisation methods, a cis-lunar cubesat platform solution and an early concept of operations. The proposed lunar nanospacecraft concept is designed without a deep space network, typically used for lunar and deep space operations. Instead, radio telescopes are being repurposed for communications and radio frequency ranging, and celestial optical navigation is developed for on-board orbit determination. 2024-03-27T15:45:47Z 2024-03-27T15:45:47Z 2024-03-14 2024-03-27T13:15:43Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 2226-4310 https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/153950 Aerospace 11 (3): 230 (2024) PUBLISHER_CC 10.3390/aerospace11030230 Creative Commons Attribution https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ application/pdf MDPI AG Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute |
| spellingShingle | Aerospace Engineering Slavinskis, Andris Palos, Mario F. Dalbins, Janis Janhunen, Pekka Tajmar, Martin Ivchenko, Nickolay Rohtsalu, Agnes Micciani, Aldo Orsini, Nicola Moor, Karl Mattias Kuzmin, Sergei Bleiders, Marcis Donerblics, Marcis Ofodile, Ikechukwu Kütt, Johan Eenmäe, Tõnis Allik, Viljo Viru, Jaan Halapuu, Pätris Kristmann, Katriin Sate, Janis Briede, Endija Anger, Marius Aas, Katarina Plonis, Gustavs Teras, Hans Allaje, Kristo Vaivads, Andris Niccolai, Lorenzo Bassetto, Marco Mengali, Giovanni Toivanen, Petri Iakubivskyi, Iaroslav Pajusalu, Mihkel Tamm, Antti Electric Sail Test Cube–Lunar Nanospacecraft, ESTCube-LuNa: Solar Wind Propulsion Demonstration Mission Concept |
| title | Electric Sail Test Cube–Lunar Nanospacecraft, ESTCube-LuNa: Solar Wind Propulsion Demonstration Mission Concept |
| title_full | Electric Sail Test Cube–Lunar Nanospacecraft, ESTCube-LuNa: Solar Wind Propulsion Demonstration Mission Concept |
| title_fullStr | Electric Sail Test Cube–Lunar Nanospacecraft, ESTCube-LuNa: Solar Wind Propulsion Demonstration Mission Concept |
| title_full_unstemmed | Electric Sail Test Cube–Lunar Nanospacecraft, ESTCube-LuNa: Solar Wind Propulsion Demonstration Mission Concept |
| title_short | Electric Sail Test Cube–Lunar Nanospacecraft, ESTCube-LuNa: Solar Wind Propulsion Demonstration Mission Concept |
| title_sort | electric sail test cube lunar nanospacecraft estcube luna solar wind propulsion demonstration mission concept |
| topic | Aerospace Engineering |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/153950 |
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