Session
Poster Session 2
Location
Salt Palace Convention Center, Salt Lake City, UT
Abstract
Laser sailing enables propellantless spacecraft propulsion by transferring momentum from a directed energy beam to a reflective sail. Unlike traditional chemical or electric propulsion systems, laser sails decouple propulsion performance from onboard mass and stored energy, presenting an opportunity for lightweight, scalable spacecraft maneuvering. This work develops and applies a simulation framework in FreeFlyer to evaluate the performance of laser sailing across a range of orbital missions, with emphasis on low-mass systems, such as CubeSats.
The simulation model incorporates several critical physical effects, including beam divergence, atmospheric attenuation, sail material reflectivity and emissivity, thermal loading, and realistic station visibility. The tool supports customizable mission geometries, sail properties, and ground or orbital laser configurations, allowing for comprehensive trade studies. Forces from both solar radiation pressure and laser illumination are modeled independently and combined when applicable.
Three case studies are presented: (1) a low-Earth orbit altitude climb using both solar and laser propulsion, (2) a medium Earth orbit (MEO) to geostationary Earth orbit (GEO) transfer, and (3) Earth escape from a low-Earth orbit. Results demonstrate that orbital laser stations outperform ground-based stations by an order of magnitude in both time-to-target and energy efficiency due to uninterrupted visibility and the absence of atmospheric losses. In the Earth escape case, an orbital laser station enabled escape within 15 days using a 50 MW beam and a 10 kg payload. The MEO-to-GEO maneuver achieved an effective specific impulse over 9600 s, surpassing many electric propulsion systems. In the LEO climb experiment, even a modest 4-meter-radius sail enabled meaningful altitude increases, demonstrating feasibility for CubeSat-scale missions.
Sensitivity analyses examine the effects of station latitude, sail material properties, and orbital inclination, revealing performance degradation when geometric alignment is suboptimal. Atmospheric losses are found to be the most significant constraint for ground-based systems, with beam efficiencies rarely exceeding 15%. The simulation also quantifies energy conversion losses and highlights how angular misalignment reduces net impulse delivery.
While laser sailing offers a promising pathway for high-∆V, low-mass propulsion, implementation challenges remain. These include generating and sustaining megawatt-scale laser power, accurately tracking small sailcraft over large distances, and establishing orbital or surface-based infrastructure. Nevertheless, laser propulsion could enable new classes of space missions for small spacecraft, from low-cost constellation maintenance to interplanetary flybys, by offering reusable infrastructure and decoupling propulsion from payload mass.
The modeling framework developed in this work provides a foundation for future mission design and optimization studies.
Document Type
Event
Exploring Beamed Energy Propulsion: Development and Application of a Configurable Simulation Tool
Salt Palace Convention Center, Salt Lake City, UT
Laser sailing enables propellantless spacecraft propulsion by transferring momentum from a directed energy beam to a reflective sail. Unlike traditional chemical or electric propulsion systems, laser sails decouple propulsion performance from onboard mass and stored energy, presenting an opportunity for lightweight, scalable spacecraft maneuvering. This work develops and applies a simulation framework in FreeFlyer to evaluate the performance of laser sailing across a range of orbital missions, with emphasis on low-mass systems, such as CubeSats.
The simulation model incorporates several critical physical effects, including beam divergence, atmospheric attenuation, sail material reflectivity and emissivity, thermal loading, and realistic station visibility. The tool supports customizable mission geometries, sail properties, and ground or orbital laser configurations, allowing for comprehensive trade studies. Forces from both solar radiation pressure and laser illumination are modeled independently and combined when applicable.
Three case studies are presented: (1) a low-Earth orbit altitude climb using both solar and laser propulsion, (2) a medium Earth orbit (MEO) to geostationary Earth orbit (GEO) transfer, and (3) Earth escape from a low-Earth orbit. Results demonstrate that orbital laser stations outperform ground-based stations by an order of magnitude in both time-to-target and energy efficiency due to uninterrupted visibility and the absence of atmospheric losses. In the Earth escape case, an orbital laser station enabled escape within 15 days using a 50 MW beam and a 10 kg payload. The MEO-to-GEO maneuver achieved an effective specific impulse over 9600 s, surpassing many electric propulsion systems. In the LEO climb experiment, even a modest 4-meter-radius sail enabled meaningful altitude increases, demonstrating feasibility for CubeSat-scale missions.
Sensitivity analyses examine the effects of station latitude, sail material properties, and orbital inclination, revealing performance degradation when geometric alignment is suboptimal. Atmospheric losses are found to be the most significant constraint for ground-based systems, with beam efficiencies rarely exceeding 15%. The simulation also quantifies energy conversion losses and highlights how angular misalignment reduces net impulse delivery.
While laser sailing offers a promising pathway for high-∆V, low-mass propulsion, implementation challenges remain. These include generating and sustaining megawatt-scale laser power, accurately tracking small sailcraft over large distances, and establishing orbital or surface-based infrastructure. Nevertheless, laser propulsion could enable new classes of space missions for small spacecraft, from low-cost constellation maintenance to interplanetary flybys, by offering reusable infrastructure and decoupling propulsion from payload mass.
The modeling framework developed in this work provides a foundation for future mission design and optimization studies.
