Extrasolar solar-sail trajectories and dark matter

摘要

Hyper-thin, high-speed solar-photon sail space probes exploring the Sun's Oort comet cloud could also be used to set an upper bound to the concentration of WIMPS (weakly interacting massive particles), one of the suggested (but unconfirmed) forms of dark matter within the vicinity of the solar system. Newton's Shell Theorem would be applied to determine variations in apparent solar mass as the probe moves further out from the Sun. Application of this technique to the trajectories of Pioneer 10/11 reveals that the upper limit to WIMP concentration within ～60 AU of the Sun is ～0.2 Earth masses, as revealed in studies of the Pioneer Anomaly. If the published accuracy of the Pioneer acceleration measurements can be increased by an order of magnitude, probe trajectory measurements out to ～10,000 AU may confirm or falsify the hypothesis that WIMP mass within the solar vicinity is ～3X star mass. It is shown that a space-manufactured ～40-nm thick beryllium hollow-body solar sail deployed from a ～0.07 AU perihelion is a candidate spacecraft for such a mission. Possible science-team organization strategy for a ～100-year mission to ～10,000 AU is discussed.