Measuring the Interplanetary Medium with a Solar Sail
Astrophysics, abstract
astro-ph/0308108
From: Michael Martin Nieto <mmn@lanl.gov>
Date: Wed, 6 Aug 2003 22:26:23 GMT (9kb)
Measuring the Interplanetary Medium with a Solar Sail
Authors:
Michael Martin Nieto,
Slava G. Turyshev
Comments: 11 pages
Report-no: LA-UR-03-5541
A solar sail mission to deep space could determine the density of the
interplanetary medium by measuring the drag force on the huge sail with
radiometric navigational data. Thus, a mission similar to the Interstellar
Probe might consider retaining its sail beyond the orbit of Jupiter to measure
the matter density in deep space. Such an experiment would a yield an
independent, new type of measurement of the interplanetary medium and should be
pursued.
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