Planar Heliocentric Roto-Translatory Motion of a Spacecraft with a Solar Sail of Complex Shape

Authors: Kirpichnikov S.N.; Kirpichnikova E.S.; Polyakhova E.N.; Shmyrov A.S.

Source: Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronomy, Volume 63, Numbers 3-4, 1995 , pp. 255-269(15)

Publisher: Springer

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Abstract:

A complete treatment of the general motion of rotation and translation of a solar-sail spacecraft is proposed for the non-flat sail of complex shape. The planar heliocentric roto-translatory motion is considered, orbit-rotational coupling in the problem of altitude and orbital sail motion is investigated for the two-folding sail formed by two unequal reflective rectangular plates oriented at a right angle. The problem of orbit-rotational coupling is essentially a planar one: both sail plates are orthogonal to the orbital plane. The possibility of the non-controlled interplanetary transfer with such two-folding sail at its passive radiational orientation is established analytically from point of view of orbit-rotational coupling. Optimal geometric proportions of this sail are found at minimum-time interplanetary transfers.

Keywords: Solar sail; orbit-rotation coupling; passive radiative orientation; optimization

Language: English

Document Type: Regular paper

Affiliations: 1: Faculty of Applied Mathematics and Faculty of Mathematics and Mechanics, St. Petersburg State University, Stary Peterhof, 198904, St. Petersburg, Russia (e-mail: kvk@aispbu.spb.su)

Publication date: 1995-01-01