L.Garde Solar Sails

L.Garde solar sails are advanced propulsion systems designed for various space applications, leveraging a unique “stripe net” architecture to achieve high system performance. These sails have undergone significant ground testing, including the deployment of 83m² and 318m² solar sails in vacuum at NASA facilities. The deployment mechanism utilizes four independently-controlled Sub-Tg conically-deployed composite booms, specifically formulated and designed for the ISPSS Program. L.Garde has also successfully deployed a 300m² quadrant of the Sunjammer solar sail, which was intended to be a 1200m² system, demonstrating their capability to create some of the largest space systems ever deployed. These solar sails offer several potential game-changing mission capabilities. These include debris collection and removal from orbit, where small solar-sail thrust can be used to capture and remove space debris over several years. They can also be integrated into satellite payloads for de-orbiting spent satellites at the end of their missions. Another application is creating pseudo-Lagrange points by counteracting some of the solar gravitational pull, as explored in the GeoStorm project to increase solar storm warning times. Furthermore, L.Garde solar sails can enable synchronous satellites at non-equatorial latitudes, such as the “pole-sitter” project, providing synchronous satellite advantages to northern and southern regions. Finally, they are capable of providing deep space propulsion, accelerating payloads free of Earth’s gravitational pull towards other planets or out of the solar system, as proposed for Project Encounter.