The AURORA Project: Removal of plastic substrate to obtain an all-metal solar sail |
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| Institution: | 1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Mahendra Institute of Technology, Tamil Nadu, India;2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Mahendra Institute of Engineering and Technology, Tamil Nadu, India;3. Department of Automobile Engineering, Mahendra Institute of Technology, Tamil Nadu, India;4. Department of Production Engineering, Government College of Technology, Coimbatore, India;1. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Changwon National University, Changwon, Gyeongnam, 51140, Republic of Korea;2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, Indianapolis, IN, 46202, USA;1. Laboratory of Innovative Technologies, National School of Applied Sciences of Tangier, AbdelmalekEssaadi University, Tetouan, Morocco;2. School of Renewable Energies and Petroleum Studies, Technopolis, International University of Rabat, LERMA, Sala el Jadida, 11000, Morocco;3. CNR-ISP, Institute of Polar Sciences, National Research Council, Via Torino 155, 30172, Mestre-Venezia, Italy;4. Department of Molecular Sciences and Nanosystems, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, via Torino 155, 30172, Venezia, Italy;5. CNR-IFN, Istituto di Fotonica e Nanotecnologie, CSMFO Lab. & FBK-CMM, 38123, Povo, Trento, Italy;6. UNESCO-UNISA Africa Chair in Nanosciences-Nanotechnology, University of South Africa, P.O Box 392, Pretoria, South Africa;7. Nanosciences African Network (NANOAFNET), iThemba LABS-National Research Foundation, 1, Somerset West, P.O Box 722, Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa;1. College of Chemistry, Fuzhou University, Fuzhou, Fujian 350116, PR China;2. State Key Laboratory of Structural Chemistry, Fujian Institute of Research on the Structure of Matter, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Fuzhou, Fujian 350002, PR China;3. School of Materials Science & Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, 201804, PR China |
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| Abstract: | The Orbital Angular Momentum Reversal (H-Reversal mode), is a new class of trajectories to get a cruise speed ranging from 12 to 20 AU/yr. To accomplish the H-reversal mode, a sailcraft needs of all metal solar sail. The solar sail envisaged by the “AURORA Project” is composed of two metallic layers (AI and Cr) deposited on plastic substrate. To obtain an all metal solar sail, required by the Project, the substrate must be removed in orbit. In order to accomplish that, two possible methods are described in this paper. The first one is based on the UV degradation of a buffer layer located between the substrate and the metallic layers. The UV degradation would be the starting mechanism that causes the interface weakness. The Diamond Like Carbon has been used as buffer layer and preliminary experimental results on its UV degradation are reported. The second method exploits the characteristic of most plastics to be etched (ashing process) by the atomic oxygen. The number density of atomic oxygen in Low Earth Orbit could be enough to remove a properly-selected plastic substrate in Short time. |
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