Structural Concept for a Lightweight, Compactly Packaging and Highly Scalable Solar Sail

Abstract

The paper describes a structural concept for a square solar sail whose main structural elements are deployable booms that are stowed through reeling. The concept features a highly integrated design through focusing on the harmonization of the stowage concepts of booms and sails. Thereby compact stowage, high scalability and low mass are achieved which makes this concept suitable for a variety of solar sail missions and launch options. The design is based on a cylindrical hub that is used on the outside as a stowage cylinder for the reelable booms and on the inside as a stowage compartment for the sail. However, this concept requires deployment of the sail in two stages. In the first stage the booms are unreeled and latched through a locking root interface. In the second stage the sail quadrants are unfolded through a rigging system. The concept is compatible with several types of reelable boom architectures ranging from tapesprings to trusses and results together with the selected stowage and deployment concepts in a highly scalable solar sail design.