论文标题
成本优势激光加速照明邮件
Cost-Optimal Laser-Accelerated Lightsails
论文作者
论文摘要
激光加速灯袋使新型任务与突破性的星形任务完全不同，该任务旨在在0.2 c下发送1克有效载荷。目前的工作将任务设计空间扩大到0.1 mg至100 kt有效载荷和0.0001-0.99 C巡航速度。 Drawing up to 5 GW directly from the grid (to augment power drawn from local energy storage) turns out to be the key to making small missions affordable: It collapses the accelerating laser's capital cost by up to 5 orders of magnitude, enabling new possibilities such as a 10 kg Solar system cubesat that accelerates to 0.001 c (63 au/yr) using a 77 m sail and \$610M laser,每个任务的成本为5800万美元。 描述Lightsail加速度的轨迹方程是以封闭形式得出的，并使用而不是数值集成。因此，分析已从单点设计到整个性能地图，包括数千个成本优化的点设计。性能地图揭示了定性不同的制度，其特征是驱动成本的特定约束，这些驾驶约束根据任务有效载荷质量和巡航速度而变化。 性能地图还揭示了一系列成本优势的任务，这些任务在地球引力上加速了：最重的任务是直径7.4 km 100 kt的船只（相当于225个国际航天站），可加速21天，以达到0.07 c，达到人类生命中的Centauri系统。虽然目前难以想象，但所需的380 PW峰值辐射功率（两倍的地面可测量）可能是在几个世纪内通过太阳能或融合产生的。无论如何，现在可以使用激光加速的Lightsails来考虑此类任务。
Laser-accelerated lightsails enable new types of missions that are very different from the Breakthrough Starshot mission to the Centauri system that aims to send 1 gram of payload at 0.2 c. The present work widens the mission design space to 0.1 mg to 100 kt payload and 0.0001-0.99 c cruise velocity. Drawing up to 5 GW directly from the grid (to augment power drawn from local energy storage) turns out to be the key to making small missions affordable: It collapses the accelerating laser's capital cost by up to 5 orders of magnitude, enabling new possibilities such as a 10 kg Solar system cubesat that accelerates to 0.001 c (63 au/yr) using a 77 m sail and \$610M laser, costing \$58M worth of energy per mission. Trajectory equations describing lightsail acceleration are derived in closed form and used instead of numerical integration. Consequently, analyses have progressed from single point designs to whole performance maps comprised of thousands of cost-optimized point designs. The performance maps reveal qualitatively different regimes characterized by the particular constraint that drives cost, and these driving constraints change depending on mission payload mass and cruise velocity. The performance maps also reveal a family of cost-optimal missions that accelerate at Earth gravity: The heaviest such mission is a 7.4 km diameter 100 kt vessel (equivalent to 225 International Space Stations) that is accelerated for 21 days to achieve 0.07 c, reaching the Centauri system within a human lifetime. While unthinkable at this time, the required 380 PW peak radiated power (twice terrestrial insolation) might be generated by space solar power or fusion within a few centuries. Regardless, it is now possible to contemplate such missions using laser-accelerated lightsails.
