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| Titel |
On the feasibility of a negative polarity electric sail |
| VerfasserIn |
P. Janhunen  |
| Medientyp |
Artikel
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| Sprache |
Englisch
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| ISSN |
0992-7689
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| Digitales Dokument |
URL |
| Erschienen |
In: Annales Geophysicae ; 27, no. 4 ; Nr. 27, no. 4 (2009-04-01), S.1439-1447 |
| Datensatznummer |
250016470
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| Publikation (Nr.) |
 copernicus.org/angeo-27-1439-2009.pdf |
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| Zusammenfassung |
| An electric solar wind sail is a recently introduced propellantless
space propulsion method whose technical development has also
started. In its original version, the electric sail consists of a
set of long, thin, centrifugally stretched and conducting tethers
which are charged positively and kept in a high positive potential
of 20 kV by an onboard electron gun. The positively charged tethers
deflect solar wind protons, thus tapping momentum from the solar
wind stream and producing thrust. Here we consider a variant of the
idea with negatively charged tethers. The negative polarity electric
sail seems to be more complex to implement than the positive
polarity variant since it needs an ion gun instead of an electron
gun as well as a more complex tether structure to keep the electron
field emission current in check with the tether surface. However,
since this first study of the negative polarity electric sail does
not reveal any fundamental issues, more detailed studies would be
warranted. |
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