NASA is funding research led by Rochester Institute of Technology scientists and alumni to uncover secrets of the sun.
“We have folks studying black holes and all kinds of exotic things in the universe. But our own sun is full of mysteries,” said Imaging science professor Grover Swartzlander, a co-investigator on the project.
Researchers will receive $2 million over two years to further develop "diffractive solar sails” which could help propel satellites around the sun. The latest research will involve ground tests and improving sail materials, according to a statement from an RIT spokesperson.
To that end, RIT will use about $500,000 of that grant funding to purchase equipment and fund student research. Former RIT student Amber Dubill is leading this third phase of research.
“With our team’s combined expertise in optics, aerospace, traditional solar sailing, and metamaterials, we hope to allow scientists to see the sun as never before,” Dubill said.
The diffractive solar sails could potentially propel satellites directly over the sun’s north and south poles to monitor solar activity.
If their work is successful, Swartzlander said in 10 to 15 years there could potentially be demonstration missions with this new technology. Those could then lead to a constellation of satellites around the sun to monitor phenomena that have remained elusive to scientists.
This could also be used as a warning system in case of extreme solar weather like solar flares, Swartzlander said.
“Solar flares send ions toward the earth and can actually blow out power stations and the electrical grid,” he said. “Imagine that if all your computers and all your circuitry fried, because of one of these. We'd be worse than in the dark. We'd really be set backward and the cost would be probably in the trillions of dollars.”
The project is a collaboration between RIT, Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, and an advanced optical technology company called BEAM Co.
In a statement, Senator Chuck Schumer said these efforts will “blaze a new trail” in space travel and uncover new understandings of our solar system.
