Solar wind propulsion

Plasma magnetic sails

Plasma magnetic sails use the solar wind to propulse vehicles in the Solar system. The WindRider design was developed mainly by members of the NFFPTC commitee in 2022 for a mission to Jupiter called JOVE. It can reach speeds of 300 km/s.
A solar plasma sail craft at Saturn. (Credit, Maxwell Greason)

A tutorial on Plama magnetic sails and their design is available: Jupiter Observing Velocity Experiment (JOVE): Introduction to Wind Rider Solar Electric Propulsion Demonstrator and Science Objectives. This includes many images and a full description of the equations underlying the design.

Papers

Solar wind powered reaction driveJeff Greason2020
Jupiter Observing Velocity Experiment (JOVE): Introduction to Wind Rider Solar Electric Propulsion Demonstrator and Science ObjectivesBrent Freeze
Jeff Greason
Ronnie Nader
Jaime Jaramillo Febres
Adolfo Chaves-Jiminez
Michel Lamontagne
Stephanie Thomas
Jason Cassibry
John Fuller
Eric Davis
Darrel Conway		2022
Dynamic soaring as a means to exceed the solar wind speedJeff Greason
Andrew Higgins
Mathias Larrouturou		2022

Videos

Missions enabled by plasma magnet sails, JEff Greason
Presentation describing the operation of a magnetic sail for the solar wind.
Presentation of Dynamic soaring as a means to exceed the Solar Wind Velocity, Andrew Higgins