Abstract
Chapters 1–4 discussed the importance of the rocket propulsion in the first 50 years of spaceflight, and its limitations with respect to what space-faring nations (augmenting in number and quality) would want to accomplish in the solar system and beyond. Chapter 5 discussed the concept of sailing, first on Earth seas with conventional sailboats, then by extending the concept to space; there, the first similarities and differences between sea sail craft and space sailcraft were emphasized. Chapter 6 detailed the principles of space sailing. Now this chapter will discuss what a space sail actually means, through the great impact it can have on the design of the different systems, which is not as obvious as it might seem.
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© 2015 Springer Science+Business Media New York
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Vulpetti, G., Johnson, L., Matloff, G.L. (2015). What Is a Space Sailcraft?. In: Solar Sails. Springer Praxis Books(). Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-0941-4_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-0941-4_7
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Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4939-0940-7
Online ISBN: 978-1-4939-0941-4
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