SPACE — Until now, the fastest technology for traveling to Planet Mars takes 9 months or around 270 days. However, a new study states that Earth can reach Mars in just 26 days.
The research, which has been submitted to Acta Astronautica and is available on the arXiv preprint server, explores the potential of using aerographite solar sails for travel to the red planet, and even interstellar space. In his presentation, the solar sail could significantly reduce the time and fuel needed for missions.
This research comes as many organizations are studying the use of solar sails following the success of The Planetary Society’s LightSail2 mission. The LightSail2 mission does have the potential to develop a faster and more efficient propulsion system for long-term space missions.
“Solar sail propulsion has the potential to rapidly deliver small (sub-kilogram) payloads throughout the solar system,” said Dr Rene Heller, an astrophysicist at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research and one of the authors of the new research.
Also read: How long does it take to get to Jupiter?
“Compared to conventional chemical propulsion, which can carry hundreds of tons of payload to low Earth orbit and deliver much of that payload to the moon, Mars and beyond, this sounds minuscule. But the main value of solar sail technology is speed.”
Unlike conventional rockets, which rely on fuel in the form of burning chemicals to exert external force behind the spacecraft, solar sails do not require fuel. Instead, they use sunlight as their propulsion mechanism.
The giant sails capture solar photons just as wind sails catch the wind as it passes through the water. The longer the solar sail is deployed, the more solar photons it captures, which gradually increases the spacecraft’s speed.
For the research, scientists simulated how quickly a solar sail made of aerographite with a mass of up to 1 kilogram, including 720 grams of aerographite with a cross-sectional area of 104 square meters, could reach Mars and Earth. The interstellar medium, also called the heliopause, uses two passes from Earth, namely the direct outward and inward transfer methods.
Also Read: How Long Will It Take To Get To The Moon?
The direct outward transfer method for trips to Mars and the heliopause involves a solar sail that deploys and departs directly from a polar orbit around Earth. The researchers determined that Mars was in a position directly opposite Earth from the sun, when the solar screen opened. Departing from Earth in such a position will provide the best results for both speed and travel time.
Deployment and departure via the same polar orbits are also used for heliopause passes. For the inward displacement method, the solar sail would be sent to about 0.6 astronomical units (AU) from the sun via a typical chemical rocket, where the solar sail would deploy and begin its journey to Mars or the heliopause.
But how do aerographite solar powered sails make travel to Mars and interstellar space more feasible?
“With its low density of 0.18 kilograms per cubic meter, aerographite weakens all conventional solar sail materials,” Julius Karlapp, Research Assistant at Dresden University of Technology and lead author of the study told Universe Today.
2023-09-25 17:56:00
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