Research Network

The planetary sunshade concept is the subject of multiple research efforts worldwide.

If you are engaged in sunshade research, please let us know! Our Research Directory highlights credible contributions to the advancement of the planetary sunshade concept. To be included, work must demonstrate one of the following: peer-reviewed publication, funded research program, demonstrated hardware development, or a technical report from a recognized institution.

Effort/Institution Point of Contact Work Area Country Website
Gama Space Andrew Nutter Solar sail manufacturing and control France https://www.gamaspace.com/
U. of Nottingham Chantal Cappelletti Engineering research & smallsat mission design United Kingdom https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/aerospace/research/space/index.aspx
Stockholm Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) Christer Fuglesang overall architecture for optimization of the system and planning for a precursor mission Sweden https://www.kth.se/en/sci/centra/rymdcenter
Fuglesang Space Center Christer Perrson Climate insurance financing Sweden https://rymdcenter.se/
U. of Glasgow Colin McInnes Investigating demo mission, and related work Scotland https://www.aria.org.uk/opportunity-spaces/future-proofing-our-climate-and-weather/exploring-climate-cooling/
Students for the Exploration and Development of Space Damian Clogher Competition for sunshade business plans - 6 student teams USA https://seds.org/all-projects/
U. of Chicago Dan Fabrycky (UChicago), \nEdwin Kite, Ben Bromley (Utah) Dust into stable earth orbit, "Artificial Planetary Torus" USA https://climateengineering.uchicago.edu/entities/orbital-dust-injection-an-artificial-planetary-torus/
Prof. Emeritus/physics Dept., NYC Collegw of Technology, CUNY Gregory L. Matloff My research concentration for decades as been interstellar solar sailing. I have a recent JBIS paper on Sunshades USA
TU Delft Jeannette Heiligers Engineering research into sunshades Netherlands
U. of Luxembourg and Technical University of Berlin Jonas Bahlmann My research focuses on space sustainability in the context of large space structures, such as the sunshade. Luxembourg and Germany
Interstellar Research Group (formerly of NASA MSFC) Les Johnson Solar sail technologist; technology maturation & planning USA https://lesjohnsonauthor.com/
U. of Glasgow Matteo Ceriotti Orbital and attitude dynamics, with applications to solar sailing. I investigate how solar radiation pressure can be exploited, both in terms of attitude control and orbital transfers, to enable new mission concepts. Scotland https://www.gla.ac.uk/schools/engineering/staff/matteoceriotti/
Earth cup Michael McDonald Solar Sailing Race to SEL1 USA https://www.earthcup.space/
Ethos Space Ross Centers, Jeff Overbeek Space resources and industrialization. Works on tech that includes 1st steps for lunar-sourced sunshade. USA https://ethos-space.com/
NASA JPL Saptarshi Bandyopadhyay DimSun concept - dust cloud at L1 USA 10.1109/AERO63441.2025.11068752
AstroCool Sergey Ivliev Proposal for deploying micron-scale moon dust at the Earth–Sun L1 point Austria astrocool.com
Institute of Space Systems, University of Stuttgart Tharshan Maheswaran System analysis of an International Planetary Sunshade (IPSS) Germany https://www.irs.uni-stuttgart.de/en/research/space-transport-technology/Mission_System_Analysis/

https://activities.esa.int/4000137600

DLR - Bremen Thimo Grundman Gossamer Roadmap for solar sail and sunshade development Germany