Ultra-large Solar Sail Technology UltraSail is a complete sail
system for the launch, deployment, stabilization and control of
very large (km^2 size) solar sails enabling reduced mission
times for interplanetary and deep space spacecraft. UltraSail is
an innovative, non-traditional approach to propulsion technology
achieved by combining propulsion and control systems developed
for formation-flying microsatellites with an innovative solar
sail architecture to achieve controllable sail areas approaching
1 km^2, sail subsystem area densities of 1 gm/m^2, and thrust
levels 20 times those of ion thrusters used for comparable deep
space missions. UltraSail can conceivably even achieve outer
planetary rendezvous, a deep space capability now reserved for
high-mass nuclear and chemical systems. The primary innovation
is the near-elimination of sail supporting structures by
attaching the sail tip to a number of formation-flying
microsatellites which deploy the sail, and then articulate the
sail to provide attitude cont