Abstract

Solar sails offer advantages over rockets for heliocentric navigation by utilizing sunlight as an unlimited source of radiation pressure for propulsion. This eliminates the need to carry fuel and allows the sail craft to reach destinations that are difficult or impossible for rockets to reach. Solar sails provide a small but continuous acceleration that produces large changes in the sail craft velocity over time. A conventional solar sail makes use of the law of reflection to achieve in-space propulsion. By tilting the reflective sail away from the sunline, an optimal angle of reflection is achieved, generating a transverse force for orbital navigation. However, this inclined orientation reduces the solar power projected on the sail, resulting in a decreased component of force that produces orbit and inclination changes. Using diffraction rather than simple reflection, a sun-facing sail can in principle provide a larger component of radiation pressure force. The fabrication and testing of a microstructure blazed grating were investigated to determine whether such a diffractive structure could be used as a solar sail. Direct-write grayscale lithography (DWL), polymer replication, and physical vapor deposition (PVD) were used to produce a hybrid transmission/reflection grating. Light scattering measurements were performed using fabricated gratings and a 633nm HeNe laser. The transverse momentum transfer efficiency was determined from the angular scattering data. Compared to the ideal transfer efficiency value of 100%, the fabricated sample achieved a value of 47% at the wavelength 633 nm.

Library of Congress Subject Headings

Solar sails--Design and construction; Diffraction gratings

Publication Date

11-2023

Document Type

Thesis

Student Type

Graduate

Degree Name

Physics (MS)

Department, Program, or Center

Physics and Astronomy, School of

College

College of Science

Advisor

Grover Swartzlander

Advisor/Committee Member

Tasso Sales

Advisor/Committee Member

George Thurston

Campus

RIT – Main Campus

Plan Codes

PHYS-MS

Download

Share

COinS