Variable-Geometry Solar Sailing: The Possibilities of the Quasi-Rhombic Pyramid

Ceriotti, Matteo; Harkness, Patrick; McRobb, Malcolm

doi:10.1007/978-3-642-34907-2_54

Cited by 20 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 17 publications

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“…This device is configured to be Sun-pointing and auto-stabilised, so the SRP force admits a potential form (DRL-101-08, 1996;Ceriotti et al, 2014). The same formulation was analysed in two different cases: the first one when the effect of SRP is taken into account only after the surface deployment and the second one when the effect of SRP is considered since the injection into the manifold and then the minimum area required is computed as a delta SRP effect due to, for example, the deployment of reflective flaps from the original spacecraft sunshade configuration.…”

Section: Energy Approach In the Cr3bp-srpmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Therefore, the disposal of Herschel seems to be the most technologically challenging to achieve with a deployed area due to the required 28 m span. However, spacecraft with the same characteristics in terms of configurations and masses such as Herschel, Gaia and SOHO, would require an specifically designed EOL stabilising deployable cone sail like the one used for attitude control (i.e., GOES mission (DRL-101-08, 1996)) or the pyramid sail proposed by Ceriotti et al (2014) in order to achieve passive attitude stabilisation. In the cases studied, the EOL change in area is on the order of a 20 m-span square sail which will cover the spacecraft bus when deployed.…”

Section: Deployable Structure Solutionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The end-of-life disposal of satellites in libration-point orbits using solar radiation pressure

Soldini

Colombo

Walker

2016

Advances in Space Research

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Please cite this article as: Soldini, S., Colombo, C., Walker, S., The end-of-life disposal of satellites in Librationpoint orbits using solar radiation pressure, Advances in Space Research (2015), doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.asr. 2015.06.033 This is a PDF file of an unedited manuscript that has been accepted for publication. As a service to our customers we are providing this early version of the manuscript. The manuscript will undergo copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proof before it is published in its final form. Please note that during the production process errors may be discovered which could affect the content, and all legal disclaimers that apply to the journal pertain.The end-of-life disposal of satellites in Libration-point orbits using solar radiation pressure AbstractThis paper proposes an end-of-life propellant-free disposal strategy for Librationpoint orbits which uses solar radiation pressure to restrict the evolution of the spacecraft motion. The spacecraft is initially disposed into the unstable manifold leaving the Libration-point orbit, before a reflective sun-pointing surface is deployed to enhance the effect of solar radiation pressure. Therefore, the consequent increase in energy prevents the spacecraft's return to Earth. Three European Space Agency missions are selected as test case scenarios: Herschel, SOHO and Gaia. Guidelines for the end-of-life disposal of future Libration-point orbit missions are proposed and a preliminary study on the effect of the Earth's orbital eccentricity on the disposal strategy is shown for the Gaia mission.Keywords: End-of-life disposal; Solar radiation pressure; Circular restricted-three body problem; Elliptic restricted-three body problem; Zero-velocity curves

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Section: Energy Approach In the Cr3bp-srpmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Deployable Structure Solutionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The end-of-life disposal of satellites in libration-point orbits using solar radiation pressure

Soldini

Colombo

Walker

2016

Advances in Space Research

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“…Apart from considering an adequate MPO, helio-stability can be enhanced by means of a Quasi-Rhombic Pyramid (QRP) shape. This idea was first introduced in [3]. The suggested structure consists of 4 reflective panels that resemble the shape of a pyramid.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Attitude and orbit coupling of planar helio-stable solar sails

Miguel

Colombo

2019

Celest Mech Dyn Astr

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The coupled attitude and orbit dynamics of solar sails is studied. The shape of the sail is a simplified quasi-rhombic-pyramid that provides the structure helio-stablility properties. After adimensionalisation, the system is put in the form of a fast-slow dynamical system where the different time scales are explicitely related to the physical parameters of the system. The orientation of the body frame with respect to the inertial orbit frame is a fast phase that can be averaged out. This gives rise to a simplified formulation that only consists of the orbit dynamics perturbed by a flat sail with fixed attitude perpendicular to the direction of the sunlight. The results are exemplified using numerical simulations.

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“…To tackle these problems this paper investigates a variable-geometry solar sail based on the quasi-rhombic pyramid (QRP) [23], where the spacecraft bus lies at the apex and deploys booms along the slant edges, such that reflective membranes may fill the slant faces. The center of solar pressure is therefore more distant from the apex than the center of mass (a distance we term the heliostatic margin), and the spacecraft accordingly exhibits longitudinal heliostatic stability as shown in Fig.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Attitude Stability and Altitude Control of a Variable-Geometry Earth-Orbiting Solar Sail

Felicetti

Ceriotti

Harkness

2016

Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics

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A variable-geometry solar sail for on-orbit altitude control is investigated. It is shown that, by adjusting the effective area of the sail at favorable times, it is possible to influence the length of the semi-major axis over an extended period of time. This solution can be implemented by adopting a spinning quasi-rhombic pyramidal solar sail which provides the heliostability needed to maintain a passive "sun-pointing" attitude and the freedom to modify the shape of the sail at any time. In particular, this paper investigates the variable-

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Variable-Geometry Solar Sailing: The Possibilities of the Quasi-Rhombic Pyramid

Cited by 20 publications

References 17 publications

The end-of-life disposal of satellites in libration-point orbits using solar radiation pressure

The end-of-life disposal of satellites in libration-point orbits using solar radiation pressure

Attitude and orbit coupling of planar helio-stable solar sails

Attitude Stability and Altitude Control of a Variable-Geometry Earth-Orbiting Solar Sail

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