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Completed TRL 2 (started at 2, targeting 3)
Solar sailing offers unprecedented capabilities for space exploration enabling such missions as solar polar imaging and inner heliosphere probes, and fast transit missions to outer planets and interstellar medium. However, attitude control of present day solar sails is rather limited and cannot be easily scaled to larger and lighter sails. Here, we leverage advances in mechanical and optical materials to create an innovative metamaterial solar sail attitude control system. Our metamaterials are seamlessly integrated with the sail material and allow decoupling sunlight incidence and sail geometry, while creating torques in desired directions. The approach enables controlling local radiation pressure momentum transfer in both in-plane and out-of-plane directions. Equipped with the metamaterial control, lighter and more efficient solar sails can be designed.
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