A Treatise on the Analytical Dynamics of Particles and Rigid Bodies: THE GENERAL THEORY OF ORBITS

Solar sail technology—A state of the art review

Celestial mechanics has traditionally been concerned with orbital motion under the action of a conservative gravitational potential. In particular, the inverse square gravitational force due to the potential of a uniform, spherical mass leads to a family of conic section orbits, as determined by Isaac Newton, who showed that Kepler‟s laws were derivable from his theory of gravitation. While orbital motion under the action of a conservative gravitational potential leads to an array of problems with often complex and interesting solutions, the addition of non-conservative forces offers new avenues of investigation. In particular, non-conservative forces lead to a rich diversity of problems associated with the existence, stability and control of families of highly non-Keplerian orbits generated by a gravitational potential and a non-conservative force. Highly non-Keplerian orbits can potentially have a broad range of practical applications across a number of different disciplines. This review aims to summarize the combined wealth of literature concerned with the dynamics, stability and control of highly non-Keplerian orbits for various low thrust propulsion devices, and to demonstrate some of these potential applications.

/pdf/survey-of-highly-non-keplerian-orbits-with-low-thrust-4azkpvo9gu.pdf

Survey of Highly Non-Keplerian Orbits with Low-Thrust Propulsion

Solar-sail mission analysis and design is currently performed assuming constant optical and mechanical properties of the thin metalized polymer films that are projected for solar sails. More realistically, however, these properties are likely to be affected by the damaging effects of the space environment. The standard solar-sail force models can therefore not be used to investigate the consequences of these effects on mission performance. The aim of this paper is to propose a new parametric model for describing the sail film's optical degradation with time. In particular, the sail film's optical coefficients are assumed to depend on its environmental history, that is, the radiation dose. Using the proposed model, the optimal control laws for degrading solar sails are derived using an indirect method and the effects of different degradation behaviors are investigated for an example interplanetary mission.

Parametric model and optimal control of solar sails with optical degradation

 These values render the electric sail a potentially competitive propulsion means for future mission applications The aim of this paper is to provide a preliminary analysis of the electric sail performance and to investigate the capabilities of this propulsion system in performing interplanetary missions To this end, the minimum-time rendezvous/transfer problem between circular and coplanar orbits is considered, and an optimal steering law is found using an indirect approach The main differences between electric sail and solar sail performances are also emphasized

/pdf/electric-sail-performance-analysis-2zvt76d06l.pdf

Electric Sail Performance Analysis

Optimal Three-Dimensional Interplanetary Rendezvous Using Nonideal Solar Sail

A review of Smart Dust architecture, dynamics, and mission applications

Electric Sail Thrust Model from a Geometrical Perspective

This paper introduces a new approach to the study of artificial equilibrium points in the circular restricted three-body problem for propulsion systems with continuous and purely radial thrust. The propulsion system is described by means of a general mathematical model that encompasses the behavior of different systems like a solar sail, a magnetic sail and an electric sail. The proposed model is based on the choice of a coefficient related to the propulsion type and a performance parameter that quantifies the system technological complexity. The propulsion system is therefore referred to as generalized sail. The existence of artificial equilibrium points for a generalized sail is investigated. It is shown that three different families of equilibrium points exist, and their characteristic locus is described geometrically by varying the value of the performance parameter. The linear stability of the artificial points is also discussed.

/pdf/artificial-equilibrium-points-for-a-generalized-sail-in-the-9s9zkyv8s8.pdf

Alessandro A. Quarta

Papers

Optimal Three-Dimensional Interplanetary Rendezvous Using Nonideal Solar Sail

A review of Smart Dust architecture, dynamics, and mission applications

Electric Sail Thrust Model from a Geometrical Perspective

Artificial Equilibrium Points for a Generalized Sail in the Circular Restricted Three-Body Problem

Optimal heliostationary missions of high-performance sailcraft