Research

“Star Propulsion”—The Iowa State Way

 

The potential for propellant-less space propulsion has spurred renewed interest in solar sailing by NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) for interplanetary and interstellar missions. Solar sails are large, lightweight reflectors that are propelled by sunlight. Bong Wie, the Vance D. Coffman Faculty Chair in Aerospace Engineering, has been sponsored by NASA and ESA to develop innovative solar sail flight control systems for interplanetary missions and to design a space mission to deflect asteroids that might collide with earth. Wie has developed a viable, near-term strategy for changing the trajectory of near-Earth asteroids/comets to mitigate their impact threat to Earth. His methods use non-nuclear deflection alternatives and employ kinetic impactors, gravity tractors, and solar sails.

---