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Innovative Structural Design Features for a 10 m Solar Sail DemonstratorThe successful development of sail architectures will require careful attention to a number of key issues including but not limited to material strength issues, stress conditions for the membrane, load interactions between membrane and structure, and membrane material planarity. Along with the inherent challenges of fabricating and handling very large membrane structures these issues will pose real challenges for the near-term development of practical sail technologies. SRS has developed innovative technologies that deal directly with the challenges of developing very large sail membranes. Some of these technologies include edge reinforcements and innovative reinforcement attachment techniques, production of flight durable sail materials of less than 2.5 micron thicknesses and large scale fabrication techniques. SRS has employed these technologies in several large 10 m demonstrators that have been delivered to LaRC for solar vacuum testing. Details of the design of this system will be discussed.
Document ID
20040071006
Acquisition Source
Marshall Space Flight Center
Document Type
Preprint (Draft being sent to journal)
Authors
Laue, G.
(Spectra Research Systems, Inc. Huntsville, AL, United States)
Moore, J.
(Spectra Research Systems, Inc. Huntsville, AL, United States)
Clayton, W.
(Spectra Research Systems, Inc. Huntsville, AL, United States)
Date Acquired
August 21, 2013
Publication Date
April 7, 2004
Subject Category
Instrumentation And Photography
Meeting Information
Meeting: AIAA Gossamer Spacecraft Conference
Location: Palm Springs, CA
Country: United States
Start Date: April 19, 2004
End Date: April 22, 2004
Sponsors: American Inst. of Aeronautics and Astronautics
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.
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