Generating Solar Sail Trajectories in the Earth-Moon System Using Augmented Finite-Difference Methods

Wawrzyniak, Geoffrey; Howell, Kathleen C.

doi:10.1155/2011/476197

Cited by 13 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…Terrestrial and lunar gravity, as well as solar radiation pressure but not solar gravity, are incorporated in the force model. A finite-difference method (FDM) approach to solving the lunar south pole coverage problem using a solar sail spacecraft in that idealized regime is documented in Wawrzyniak and Howell [9].…”

Section: Generating a Reference Path In An Inertial Ephemeris Regimementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The solutions from Wawrzyniak and Howell [9], however, still require verification. To properly model the motion of the vehicle for a mission scenario, solutions from the simpler model must be transitioned to a higher-fidelity model, such as one based on ephemeris positions and the gravitational effects of the Earth, the Moon, and the Sun [6].…”

Section: Generating a Reference Path In An Inertial Ephemeris Regimementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The procedure employed to transition the solutions from the Earth-Moon CR3B system to the higher-fidelity model, as well as the results of that transition, are detailed below. Error properties for the FDM scheme discussed in Wawrzyniak and Howell [9] apply to the FDM scheme developed for the inertial, ephemeris model as well. The FDM algorithm is demonstrated to be a viable tool for generating trajectories in high-fidelity models.…”

Section: Generating a Reference Path In An Inertial Ephemeris Regimementioning

confidence: 99%

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An Adaptive, Receding-Horizon Guidance Strategy for Solar Sail Trajectories

Wawrzyniak

Howell

2012

J of Astronaut Sci

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Without additional attitude and orbital control systems, such as thrusters, solar-sail trajectories are controlled by the orientation of the sailcraft. The sail attitude is employed to target the sailcraft to some future state along the reference trajectory. In a "turn-and-hold" strategy, the attitude profile consists of at least three orientations between an initial and future, target state along the trajectory. Because of orbit-knowledge, control, and turn-modeling errors, a look-ahead control strategy is generated, one in which only the first turn from the profile is performed, and then a new profile is constructed based on updated orbit knowledge. The initial hold intervals, along with the number of turns, used to generate an attitude profile is automatically adapted to improve convergence of the algorithm. This technique is generally successful when applied to reference trajectories generated in an Earth-Moon-Sun ephemeris regime.

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Section: Generating a Reference Path In An Inertial Ephemeris Regimementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Generating a Reference Path In An Inertial Ephemeris Regimementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Generating a Reference Path In An Inertial Ephemeris Regimementioning

confidence: 99%

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An Adaptive, Receding-Horizon Guidance Strategy for Solar Sail Trajectories

Wawrzyniak

Howell

2012

J of Astronaut Sci

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“…Previous work on solar sail periodic orbits in the EarthMoon system either linearised the equations of motion (McInnes 1993;Simo and McInnes 2009) or searched for bespoke orbits, e.g., below the lunar South Pole by solving the accompanying optimal control problem (Ozimek et al 2009;Ozimek et al 2010;Wawrzyniak and Howell 2011). The results in the linearised system have been transferred to the full non-linear dynamical system (Wawrzyniak and Howell 2011a), but the results presented are limited to one specific steering law and only show one family of orbits at the Earth-Moon L 2 point.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Extension of Earth-Moon libration point orbits with solar sail propulsion

Heiligers

Macdonald

Parker

2016

Astrophys Space Sci

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This paper presents families of libration point orbits in the Earth-Moon system that originate from complementing the classical circular restricted three-body problem with a solar sail. Through the use of a differential correction scheme in combination with a continuation on the solar sail induced acceleration, families of Lyapunov, halo, vertical Lyapunov, Earth-centred, and distant retrograde orbits are created. As the solar sail circular restricted three-body problem is non-autonomous, a constraint defined within the differential correction scheme ensures that all orbits are periodic with the Sun's motion around the Earth-Moon system. The continuation method then starts from a classical libration point orbit with a suitable period and increases the solar sail acceleration magnitude to obtain families of orbits that are parametrised by this acceleration. Furthermore, different solar sail steering laws are considered (both in-plane and out-of-plane, and either fixed in the synodic frame or fixed with respect to the direction of Sunlight), adding to the wealth of families of solar sail enabled libration point orbits presented. Finally, the linear stability properties of the generated orbits are investigated to assess the need for active orbital control. It is shown that the solar sail induced acceleration can have a positive effect on the stability of some orbit families, especially those at the L 2 point, but that it most often (further) destabilises the orbit. Active control will therefore be needed to ensure long-term survivability of these orbits.

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“…below the lunar South Pole [13]) by solving the optimal control problem. This work will instead look for entire families of solar sail periodic orbits, in particular Lyapunov and Halo orbits, in the Earth-Moon system by solving the accompanying boundary value problem.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Solar sail Lyapunov and Halo orbits in the Earth–Moon three-body problem

Heiligers¹,

Hiddink

Noomen

et al. 2015

Acta Astronautica

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Solar sailing has been proposed for a range of novel space applications, including hovering above the ecliptic for high-latitude observations of the Earth and monitoring the Sun from a sub-L 1 position for space weather forecasting. These applications, and many others, are all defined in the Sun-Earth threebody problem, while little research has been conducted to investigate the potential of solar sailing in the Earth-Moon three-body problem. This paper therefore aims to find solar sail periodic orbits in the Earth-Moon three-body problem, in particular Lagrange-point orbits. By introducing a solar sail acceleration to the Earth-Moon three-body problem, the system becomes non-autonomous and constraints on the orbital period need to be imposed. In this paper, the problem is solved as a twopoint boundary value problem together with a continuation approach: starting from a natural Lagrange-point orbit, the solar sail acceleration is gradually increased and the result for the previous sail performance is used as an initial guess for a slightly better sail performance. Three in-plane steering laws are considered for the sail, two where the attitude of the sail is fixed in the synodic reference frame (perpendicular to the Earth-Moon line) and one where the sail always faces the Sun.The results of the paper include novel families of solar sail Lyapunov and Halo orbits around the Earth-Moon L 1 and L 2 Lagrange points, respectively. These orbits are double-revolution orbits that wind around or are off-set with respect to the natural Lagrange-point orbit. Finally, the effect of an out-of-plane solar sail acceleration component and that of the Sun-sail configuration is investigated, giving rise to additional families of solar sail periodic orbits in the Earth-Moon three-body problem.

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Generating Solar Sail Trajectories in the Earth-Moon System Using Augmented Finite-Difference Methods

Cited by 13 publications

References 31 publications

An Adaptive, Receding-Horizon Guidance Strategy for Solar Sail Trajectories

An Adaptive, Receding-Horizon Guidance Strategy for Solar Sail Trajectories

Extension of Earth-Moon libration point orbits with solar sail propulsion

Solar sail Lyapunov and Halo orbits in the Earth–Moon three-body problem

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