Aerospace (Mar 2024)

Electric Sail Test Cube–Lunar Nanospacecraft, ESTCube-LuNa: Solar Wind Propulsion Demonstration Mission Concept

  • Andris Slavinskis,
  • Mario F. Palos,
  • Janis Dalbins,
  • Pekka Janhunen,
  • Martin Tajmar,
  • Nickolay Ivchenko,
  • Agnes Rohtsalu,
  • Aldo Micciani,
  • Nicola Orsini,
  • Karl Mattias Moor,
  • Sergei Kuzmin,
  • Marcis Bleiders,
  • Marcis Donerblics,
  • Ikechukwu Ofodile,
  • Johan Kütt,
  • Tõnis Eenmäe,
  • Viljo Allik,
  • Jaan Viru,
  • Pätris Halapuu,
  • Katriin Kristmann,
  • Janis Sate,
  • Endija Briede,
  • Marius Anger,
  • Katarina Aas,
  • Gustavs Plonis,
  • Hans Teras,
  • Kristo Allaje,
  • Andris Vaivads,
  • Lorenzo Niccolai,
  • Marco Bassetto,
  • Giovanni Mengali,
  • Petri Toivanen,
  • Iaroslav Iakubivskyi,
  • Mihkel Pajusalu,
  • Antti Tamm

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace11030230
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 11, no. 3
p. 230

Abstract

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The electric solar wind sail, or E-sail, is a propellantless interplanetary propulsion system concept. By deflecting solar wind particles off their original course, it can generate a propulsive effect with nothing more than an electric charge. The high-voltage charge is applied to one or multiple centrifugally deployed hair-thin tethers, around which an electrostatic sheath is created. Electron emitters are required to compensate for the electron current gathered by the tether. The electric sail can also be utilised in low Earth orbit, or LEO, when passing through the ionosphere, where it serves as a plasma brake for deorbiting—several missions have been dedicated to LEO demonstration. In this article, we propose the ESTCube-LuNa mission concept and the preliminary cubesat design to be launched into the Moon’s orbit, where the solar wind is uninterrupted, except for the lunar wake and when the Moon is in the Earth’s magnetosphere. This article introduces E-sail demonstration experiments and the preliminary payload design, along with E-sail thrust validation and environment characterisation methods, a cis-lunar cubesat platform solution and an early concept of operations. The proposed lunar nanospacecraft concept is designed without a deep space network, typically used for lunar and deep space operations. Instead, radio telescopes are being repurposed for communications and radio frequency ranging, and celestial optical navigation is developed for on-board orbit determination.

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