Related papers: Safety criteria for flying E-sail through solar ec…
New means of interstellar travel are now being considered by various research teams, assuming lightweight spaceships to be accelerated via either laser or solar radiation to a significant fraction of the speed of light (c). We recently…
Past planetary missions have been broad and detailed for Gas Giants, compared to flyby missions for Ice Giants. Presently, a mission to Neptune using electrodynamic tethers is under consideration due to the ability of tethers to provide…
In this paper it is presented the concept and design of a new type of spacecraft that could be used to make the first manned interstellar travel. Solar one would integrate three near-term technologies, namely: compact nuclear fusion…
Current space exploration programs call for the establishment of a permanent Human presence on the Moon. This paper considers periodic orbits of a shuttle between the Earth and the Moon. Such a shuttle will be needed to bring supplies to…
At a distance of about 4.22 lightyears, it would take about 100,000 years for humans to visit our closest stellar neighbor Proxima Centauri using modern chemical thrusters. New technologies are now being developed that involve high-power…
In future geocentric space-based gravitational-wave observatory missions, eclipses due to passing through the Moon's and Earth's shadows can negatively impact the sciencecraft's thermal stability and steady power supply. The occurrence…
Solar wind turbulence is a dynamical phenomenon that evolves with heliocentric distance. Orbiting Mars since September 2014, Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) offers a unique opportunity to explore some of its main properties…
The collinear Lagrange points of the Sun-Earth system provide an ideal environment for highly sensitive space science missions. Consequently many new missions are planed by ESA and NASA that require satellites close to these points. For…
Super-Earths are one of the most common types of extrasolar planets currently known. Hundreds of these planets have been discovered by the $Kepler$ spacecraft and other surveys, with masses up to 10 $M_\oplus$ and consequently higher…
Laser sails propelled by gigawatt-scale ground-based laser arrays have the potential to reach relativistic speeds, traversing the solar system in hours and reaching nearby stars in years. Here, we describe the danger interplanetary dust…
Interest in the exploration of, and the establishment of a human settlement, on Mars is rapidly growing. To achieve this, rapid transit will be required to bring crucial cargo. Current missions to Mars take 150 days, which would be too long…
Recently, we witnessed how the synergy of small satellite technology and solar sailing propulsion enables new missions. Together, small satellites with lightweight instruments and solar sails offer affordable access to deep regions of the…
The propagation of solar energetic particles (SEPs) in interplanetary space is modulated by solar wind turbulence, which significantly influences particle diffusion and energy evolution through scattering processes. Traditional analyses…
A highly reflective sail provides a way to propel a spacecraft out of the solar system using solar radiation pressure. The closer the spacecraft is to the Sun when it starts its outward journey, the larger the radiation pressure and so the…
This paper presents a study for the realization of a space mission which employs nanosatellites driven by an external laser source impinging on an optimized lightsail, as a valuable technology to launch swarms of spacecrafts into the Solar…
Propellantless propulsion refers to methods of space travel that do not require onboard propellant, instead relying on natural forces or external energy sources. In this paper, I review different approaches that have been explored and…
The POLAR Investigation of the Sun (POLARIS) mission uses a combination of a gravity assist and solar sail propulsion to place a spacecraft in a 0.48 AU circular orbit around the Sun with an inclination of 75 degrees with respect to solar…
In this work, the orbital evolution of these objects that are located in the geostationary orbit (GEO) is analyzed. Knowing this, the possibility of using a solar sail is considered to help to clean the space environment. The main natural…
The escalating accumulation of orbital debris threatens the sustainability of space operations, necessitating active removal solutions that overcome the limitations of current fuel-dependent methods. To address this, this study introduces a…
Advanced solar sailing has been an increasingly attractive propulsion system for highly non-Keplerian orbits. Three new applications of the orbital angular momentum reversal (H-reversal) trajectories using solar sails are presented in this…