City Tech to host International Solar Sailing Symposium July 20-22

Top scientists from 14 countries will convene at New York City College of Technology (City Tech) from July 20 through July 22 to discuss recent advances in solar sailing technologies, near-term solar sailing missions and the physics of solar sailing.

Coming from Japan, Russia, Germany, the United Kingdom, Sweden, Spain, Italy, France, Canada, China, Brazil, Portugal, Luxembourg and all over the United States, they are convening for the Second International Symposium on Solar Sailing, which City Tech is proud to host.

"With rockets and other spacecrafts consuming tons of fuel, the prospect of using solar sails -- which employ only the pressure of sunlight as propulsion -- is becoming key," says City Tech Physics Chairperson and Professor Roman Kezerashvili, who is chairing the local organizing committee for the symposium.

The more than 40 presentations at the Symposium will focus on the dynamics analysis and testing of solar sails, advanced materials and structural concepts of solar sails, space environmental effects and solar spacecraft protection, solar spacecraft charging, enabling technologies, navigation, control, modeling, mission applications and programs.

The proceedings from the symposium will be edited by Professor Kezerashvili for a special issue of Advances in Space Research, the official journal of the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR), a Scientific Committee of the International Council for Science. COSPAR is an interdisciplinary scientific organization concerned with the progress of space research on an international scale.

Review talk topics and presenters at the City Tech symposium include:

• "History of Solar Sailing Flights," Louis Friedman, the Planetary Society (USA) and James Cantrell, Strategic Space Development, Inc. (USA);
• "Solar Power Sail - Hybrid Propulsion and its Applications," Junichiro Kawaguchi, JAXA Space Exploration Center (Japan), including a discussion about Japan's recent deployment of the Ikaros solar sail;
• "Status of Solar Sail Technology Within NASA," Les Johnson, NASA George C. Marshall Space Flight Center (USA);
• "Using a Solar Sail Mission to Test Fundamental Physics," Roman Kezerashvili, City Tech (USA);
• "Solar Sail Mission Applications and Future Advancement," Eur Ing Malcolm Macdonald and Colin McInnes, University of Strathclyde (UK).
  

A free lecture and panel discussion open to the general public will take place on Wednesday, July 21, 6 p.m., in City Tech's Atrium Amphitheater. Dr. Louis Friedman, executive director of The Planetary Society, will present the lecture and participate in the panel discussion to follow.

Other panelists will include the NASA's Les Johnson, JAXA Space Exploration Center's Junichiro Kawaguchi, the University of Strathclyde's Eur Ing Malcolm Macdonald.

Provided by New York City College of Technology