High Speed AB-Solar Sail

TL;DR

This paper proposes a revolutionary highly reflective AB-solar sail capable of reaching speeds up to 400 km/sec by flying close to the Sun, enabling rapid space travel and avoiding excessive heating.

Contribution

Introduction of a new highly reflective solar sail design that achieves high speeds near the Sun while preventing overheating, advancing solar sail propulsion technology.

Findings

Achieves velocities up to 400 km/sec near the Sun

Reduces sail heating with a new reflective design

Enables rapid travel to outer planets and beyond

Abstract

The Solar sail is a large thin film used to collect solar light pressure for moving of space apparatus. Unfortunately, the solar radiation pressure is very small about 9 mkN/sq.m at Earth's orbit. However, the light force significantly increases up to 0.2 - 0.35 N/sq.m near the Sun. The author offers his research on a new revolutionary highly reflective solar sail which flyby (after special maneuver) near Sun and attains velocity up to 400 km/sec and reaching far planets of the Solar system in short time or enable flights out of Solar system. New, highly reflective sail-mirror allows avoiding the strong heating of the solar sail. It may be useful for probes close to the Sun and Mercury and Venus. Key words: AB-solar sail, highly reflective solar sail, high speed propulsion.