GeoSail

GeoSail is a mission concept to explore the Earth's magnetosphere with a low-cost solar sail. The sail is used to precess a large, elliptic Earth orbit, making it sun-synchronous, so that the apogee remains in the geomagnetic tail. Thus, every orbit of the sail throughout the life of the mission passes through this region, measuring magnetic reconnection and electron dynamics with a single small spacecraft. GeoSail is a relatively simple mission that could be used to demonstrate solar sailing. McInnesetal2001:MacDonaldetal2003:MacDonaldetal2006:MacDonaldetal2007