Dynamics and control of sun-facing diffractive solar sails in displaced orbit for asteroid deflection

Chu, Yin; Baoyin, Hexi; Gong, Shengping

doi:10.1016/j.ast.2024.108877

Cited by 5 publications

(1 citation statement)

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“…As a result of this, attitude control of a diffractive sail is much simpler than for a reflective sail and in principle could also be implemented passively by designing the sail with a slightly conical shape [18]. In general, therefore, a nearly Sun-facing diffractive sail may prove to be a very promising propulsion device and relatively simple to use in terms of guidance, navigation, and control mechanisms [19,20].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Optimal Trajectories of Diffractive Sail to Highly Inclined Heliocentric Orbits

Mengali,

Quarta

2024

Applied Sciences

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Recent literature indicates that the diffractive sail concept is an interesting alternative to the more conventional reflective solar sail, which converts solar radiation pressure into a (deep space) thrust using a thin, lightweight highly reflective membrane, usually metalized. In particular, a diffractive sail, which uses a metamaterial-based membrane to diffract incoming solar rays, is able to generate a steerable thrust vector even when the sail nominal plane is perpendicular to the Sun–spacecraft line. This paper analyzes the optimal transfer performance of a diffractive-sail-based spacecraft in a challenging heliocentric scenario that is consistent with the proposed Solar Polar Imager mission concept. In this case, the spacecraft must reach a near-circular (heliocentric) orbit with a high orbital inclination with respect to the Ecliptic in order to observe and monitor the Sun’s polar regions. Such a specific heliocentric scenario, because of the high velocity change it requires, is a mission application particularly suited for a propellantless propulsion system such as the classical solar sail. However, as shown in this work, the same transfer can be accomplished using a diffractive sail as the primary propulsion system. The main contribution of this paper is the analysis of the spacecraft transfer trajectory using a near-optimal strategy by dividing the entire flight into an approach phase to a circular orbit of the same radius as the desired final orbit but with a smaller inclination, and a subsequent cranking phase until the desired (orbital) inclination is reached. The numerical simulations show that the proposed strategy is sufficiently simple to implement and can provide solutions that differ by only a few percentage points from the optimal results obtainable with a classical indirect approach.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%