Related papers: The Sun Diver: Combining solar sails with the Ober…
Microwave propelled sails are a new class of spacecraft using photon acceleration. It is the only method of interstellar flight that has no physics issues. Laboratory demonstrations of basic features of beam-driven propulsion, flight,…
Orbit spin coupling is proposed as an alternative to planetary tidal models for the excitation of solar variability as a function of time. Momentum sourced from the orbital angular momenta of solar system bodies is deposited within the…
We explore consequences for the solar dynamo of a newly-developed physical hypothesis describing a weak coupling of the orbital and rotational motions of extended bodies. The coupling is given by - c ((dL/dt) x omega sub alpha) x r, where…
Near-sun space-environment effects on metallic thin films solar sails as well as hollow-body sails with inflation fill gas are considered. Analysis of interaction of the solar radiation with the solar sail materials is presented. This…
Parker Solar Probe (PSP) observations have revealed that most of the solar wind acceleration occurs very close to the Sun. This acceleration is partly due to the global electric potential originating from the mass disparity between…
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…
This paper describes a series of 3D simulations of shallow inefficient convection in the outer layers of the Sun. The computational domain is a closed box containing the convection-radiation transition layer, located at the top of the solar…
Integrating floating photovoltaic (FPV) installations into offshore wind farms has been proposed as a major opportunity to scale up offshore renewable energy generation. The interaction between these hybrid wind-solar farms and the…
Sub-GeV halo dark matter that enters the Sun can potentially scatter off hot solar nuclei and be ejected much faster than its incoming velocity. We derive an expression for the rate and velocity distribution of these reflected particles…
The solar gravitational lens (SGL) provides a factor of $10^{11}$ amplification for viewing distant point sources beyond our solar system. As such, it may be used for resolved imaging of extended sources, such as exoplanets, not possible…
The primary challenge of rocket propulsion is the burden of needing to accelerate the spacecraft's own fuel, resulting in only a logarithmic gain in maximum speed as propellant is added to the spacecraft. Light sails offer an attractive…
Recent experiments on ultra slow light in strongly dispersive media by several research groups reporting slowing down of the optical pulses down to speeds of a few metres per second encourage us to examine the intriguing possibility of…
In this paper, a surface geometric constraint approach is used in designing the orbits of a solar sail. We solve the solar sail equation of motion by obtaining a generalized Laplace-Runge-Lenz (LRL) vector with the assumption that the cone…
The outer surface layers of the sun show a clear deceleration at low latitudes. This is generally thought to be the result of a strong dominance of vertical turbulent motions associated with strong downdrafts. This strong negative radial…
We study the solar emission of light dark sector particles that self-interact strongly enough to self-thermalize. The resulting outflow behaves like a fluid which accelerates under its own thermal pressure to highly relativistic bulk…
In the framework of focused transport theory, adiabatic deceleration arises from adiabatic focusing in the solar wind frame and from differential solar wind convection. An explicit formula is given for the deceleration of individual…
This paper introduces an algorithm to perform optimal reorientation of a spacecraft during a high speed flyby mission that maximizes the time a certain target is kept within the field of view of scientific instruments. The method directly…
This paper investigates an autonomous navigation method for spacecraft operating in the outer solar system, up to 250 AU from the Sun, using the parallactic shifts of nearby stars. These measurements enable estimation of the spacecraft…
This paper investigates the conditions for producing rapid variations of solar ener- getic particle (SEP) intensity commonly known as dropouts. In particular, we use numerical model simulations based on solving the focused transport…
The rotational Doppler effect, for which the frequency shift is proportional to the light's orbital angular momentum $\ell$ and the object's rotational speed ($\Delta f \propto\ell \Omega$), has proven to be a powerful tool for detecting…