Macdonald, M. and Hughes, Gareth W. and McInnes, Colin and Lyngvi, A. and Falkner, P. and Atzei, A. (2007) GeoSail: an elegant solar sail

In this paper a solar sail magnetotail mission concept was examined. The 43 m square solar sail is used to provide the required propulsion for continuous Sun-synchronous apse-line precession. The main driver in this mission was found to be the reduction of launch mass and mission cost while enabling a nominal duration of 2 years within the framework of a demonstration mission. It was found that the i Work conducted at University of Glasgow: now at SciSys Ltd., [email protected] ii Work conducted at University of Glasgow: now at EADS Astrium Ltd., [email protected] iii Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Member AIAA [email protected] iv Science Payload and Advanced Concepts Office, ESTEC [email protected]