  The electric solar wind sail (E-sail) is a novel, efficient propellantless
propulsion concept which utilises the natural solar wind for spacecraft
propulsion with the help of long centrifugally stretched charged tethers. The
E-sail requires auxiliary propulsion applied to the tips of the main tethers
for creating the initial angular momentum and possibly for modifying the
spinrate later during flight to counteract the orbital Coriolis effect and
possibly for mission specific reasons. We introduce the possibility of
implementing the required auxiliary propulsion by small photonic blades (small
radiation pressure solar sails). The blades would be stretched centrifugally.
We look into two concepts, one with and one without auxiliary tethers. The use
of photonic blades has the benefit of providing sufficient spin modification
capability for any E-sail mission while keeping the technology fully
propellantless. We conclude that the photonic blades appear to be a feasible
and attractive solution to E-sail spinrate control.
