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One possibility for propellantless propulsion in space is to use the\udmomentum flux of the solar wind. A way to set up a solar wind sail is\udto have a set of thin long wires which are kept at high positive\udpotential by an onboard electron gun so that the wires repel and\uddeflect incident solar wind protons. The efficiency of this so-called\udelectric sail depends on how large force a given solar wind exerts on\uda wire segment and how large electron current the wire segment draws\udfrom the solar wind plasma when kept at a given potential. We use 1-D\udand 2-D electrostatic plasma simulations to calculate the force and\udpresent a semitheoretical formula which captures the simulation\udresults. We find that under average solar wind conditions at 1 AU the\udforce per unit length is (5±1×10<sup>−8</sup> N/m for 15 kV\udpotential and that the electron current is accurately given by the\udwell-known orbital motion limited (OML) theory cylindrical Langmuir\udprobe formula. Although the force may appear small, an analysis shows\udthat because of the very low weight of a thin wire per unit length,\udquite high final speeds (over 50 km/s) could be achieved by an electric\udsailing spacecraft using today's flight-proved components. It is\udpossible that artificial electron heating of the plasma in the\udinteraction region could increase the propulsive effect even further

Simulation study of solar wind push on a charged wire: basis of solar wind electric sail propulsion