Electric Solar Wind Sail Kinetic Energy Impactor for Asteroid Deflection Missions

Yamaguchi, Kouhei; Yamakawa, Hiroshi

doi:10.1007/s40295-015-0081-x

Cited by 26 publications

(28 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…If planetary swing-bys are planned during the mission, each solar eclipse has to be carefully considered to avoid drastic thermal contraction and expansion of the sail tethers [10]. In addition to scientific missions, the electric sail can be used for planetary defense as a gravity tractor [11] or an impactor [12] and to rendezvous with such Potentially Hazardous Objects that cannot be reached by conventional propulsion systems [13]. The electric sail has also been suggested as a key method of transportation for products of asteroid mining [14].…”

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confidence: 99%

Thrust vectoring of an electric solar wind sail with a realistic sail shape

Toivanen

Janhunen

2017

Acta Astronautica

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The shape of a rotating electric solar wind sail under the centrifugal force and solar wind dynamic pressure is modeled to address the sail attitude maintenance and thrust vectoring. The sail rig assumes centrifugally stretched main tethers that extend radially outward from the spacecraft in the sail spin plane. Furthermore, the tips of the main tethers host remote units that are connected by auxiliary tethers at the sail rim. Here, we derive the equation of main tether shape and present both a numerical solution and an analytical approximation for the shape as parametrized both by the ratio of the electric sail force to the centrifugal force and the sail orientation with respect to the solar wind direction. The resulting shape is such that near the spacecraft, the roots of the main tethers form a cone, whereas towards the rim, this coning is flattened by the centrifugal force, and the sail is coplanar with the sail spin plane. Our approximation for the sail shape is parametrized only by the tether root coning angle and the main tether length. Using the approximate shape, we obtain the torque and thrust of the electric sail force applied to the sail. As a result, the amplitude of the tether voltage modulation required for the maintenance of the sail attitude is given as a torquefree solution. The amplitude is smaller than that previously obtained for a rigid single tether resembling a spherical pendulum. This implies that less thrusting margin is required for the maintenance of the sail attitude. For a given voltage modulation, the thrust vectoring is then considered in terms of the radial and transverse thrust components.

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confidence: 99%

Thrust vectoring of an electric solar wind sail with a realistic sail shape

Toivanen

Janhunen

2017

Acta Astronautica

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“…Note that a belongs to the plane ðê r ,nÞ ifê r 6 ¼n, whereasâ ê r ifn ê r . Taking into account the recent numerical simulations by Yamaguchi and Yamakawa, 8,9 the components of vector a in T RTN are…”

Section: Mathematical Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Taking into account the recent numerical simulations by Yamaguchi and Yamakawa, 8,9 the components of vector a in TRTN are where a c is the spacecraft characteristic acceleration (i.e. the maximum value of ||a|| at a Sun-spacecraft reference distance r⊕Δ=1au), τ∈{0,1} is the switching variable that models the thruster on/off modes, and γ∈(0,1] is the dimensionless propulsive acceleration modulus, defined as the ratio of the local value of ||a|| at a given E-sail attitude to the local maximum propulsive acceleration modulus ||a||max.…”

Section: Mathematical Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…4 The results associated to locally-optimal trajectories can be used as a starting guess for a succeeding analysis of globally-optimal trajectories, in which, for example, an approach based on the classical calculus of variations 5 or on direct optimization algorithms 6 is used to find the minimum flight time. Unlike most of the existing results on E-sail mission design, which are obtained with a simplified thrust model, 5,7 this paper uses the most recent E-sail thrust mathematical model [8][9][10] that accounts for a dependence of both the modulus and direction of the thrust vector on the spacecraft attitude.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Locally-optimal electric sail transfer

Bassetto

Quarta

Mengali

2017

Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, Part G:

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This paper analyzes the locally-optimal heliocentric transfer of a spacecraft propelled by an electric solar wind sail, an innovative propellantless propulsion system that generates a propulsive acceleration exploiting the momentum of solar wind particles. The potentialities of such an advanced thruster are investigated in terms of flight times required to achieve a given heliocentric orbit. The problem is addressed using a locally-optimal formulation, by minimizing a scalar performance index that depends on the time derivatives of the osculating orbital elements. The proposed algorithm gives an estimate of the globally-optimal flight time with reduced computational efforts compared to a traditional optimization approach. Also, when the performance index involves a single orbital parameter and the transfer trajectory is twodimensional, the proposed approach provides an analytical solution to the locally-optimal control problem. The procedure discussed in the paper is used to quantify the near-optimal performance of an electric solar wind sail in some advanced mission scenarios, such as the design of a heliocentric non-Keplerian orbit for solar activity monitoring, the exploration of the Solar System boundaries, and the rendezvous with comets 1P Halley and 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.

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“…When an E-sail is immersed into the solar wind plasma, it generates a propulsive acceleration by exchanging momentum with the incoming ions. Possible mission scenarios that exploit an E-sail-induced thrust include deep space transfers to planets [3] or asteroids [4,5,6], generation of non-Keplerian orbits [7,8], maintenance of artificial Lagrangian points [9,10], and even more interesting options, such as manned Mars operations [11], outer Solar System exploration [12,13,14] and interstellar missions [15]. A derivation of the E-sail working principle, the plasma brake concept [16,17], could be used to deorbit a spacecraft from a low Earth orbit.…”

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confidence: 99%