A project to develop diffractive solar sails has advanced to the third and final phase of NASA's advanced concepts program. The team behind the project has two years to further develop this unconventional means of space propulsion. The diffractive lightsails project was awarded an additional $2 million in addition to the two-year extension. The space agency granted the phase 3 funding. Dubill and her colleagues will now be able to work on a demonstration mission. NASA administrator Bill Nelson said in the statement that they will need innovative, cutting-edge technologies to drive their missions. The solar sails project became a NIAC phase 2 project in 2019. The first two phases of the project were led by a Rochester Institute of Technology engineer.
Similar to how wind pushes sailboats along the water, solar sails use sunlight to propel vehicles through space. diffractive sails would be used instead of reflective sails in the system being proposed. Diffraction causes light to spread out when it travels through a small opening. The concept was described back in 2019.
G/O Media may get a commissionWe’re embarking on a new age of space travel that makes use of solar radiation pressure on large, thin sail membranes. The conventional idea for the last 100 years has been to use a reflective sail such as a metal coating on a thin polymer and you unfurl that in space, but you can get a force based on the law of diffraction as well. In comparison to a reflective sail, we think a diffractive sail could be more efficient and could withstand the heat of the Sun better. These sails are transparent so they’re not going to absorb a lot of heat from the Sun, and we won’t have the heat management problem as you do with a metallic surface.
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There are sails that are big and thin. They are limited by the direction of sunlight, which limits either power or navigation, as you can't have both. The diffractive lightsails use tiny grates on the sail material to diffract light in all directions. The design being proposed by Dubill could result in smaller and more maneuverable sails. The sails are similar to how CDs look when held to light.
The team designed, created, and tested diffractive sail materials. The team developed navigation and control schemes for a future solar mission. A constellation of satellites could be enabled by diffractive sails. The solar satellites would perform unprecedented scientific observations if they flew over the Sun's north and south poles.
The NASA statement said that diffractive solar sailing is a modern take on the vision of lightsails.
Dubill and her team will attempt to improve the solar sail material and run ground experiments to further test the feasibility of the concept. The concept could lead to an actual space-based mission and proposed solar satellites.
We hope to allow scientists to see the Sun as never before with our team's combined expertise.
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