A passive, sun-pointing, millimeter-scale solar sail

Atchison, Justin A.; Peck, Mason A.

doi:10.1016/j.actaastro.2009.12.008

Cited by 47 publications

(58 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…While current constellations use relatively modest numbers of satellites, future microspacecraft [3] or 'smart dust' type devices [4,5] may enable constellations with extremely large numbers of nodes. In this Note a continuum approach is used to model the dynamics of such constellations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wave-Like Patterns in an Elliptical Satellite Ring

McInnes

Colombo

2013

Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Wave-Like Patterns in an Elliptical Satellite Ring

McInnes

Colombo

2013

Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics

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“…4) Propulsion: The GN&C requirements on propulsion for a swarm operation result in higher I sp options, where specific impulse (I sp ) indicates the efficiency of a propulsion system in terms of thrust force with respect to the amount of propellant used per unit time. Passive propulsion options such as Lorentz and solar sail techniques [3] do not offer the response speed and the control resolution required. Suitable candidates for a femtosat are: (a) electrospray thrusters using indium or ionic liquid propellants, (b) miniaturized hydrazine warm gas thrusters [17], and (c) digital microthrusters [18].…”

Section: ) Fabrication Schemes and Component Selectionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There has been significant interest in small spacecraft (e.g., Cubesats [2] and satellites on printed circuit boards or silicon chips [3], [4]). The SWIFT represents a 100-gram-class spacecraft capable of six degrees of freedom (6DOF) control, built by novel three-dimensional (3-D) silicon wafer fabrication and integration techniques [5].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On Development of 100-Gram-Class Spacecraft for Swarm Applications

Hadaegh

Chung

Manohara

2016

IEEE Systems Journal

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Abstract-A novel space system architecture is proposed that would enable 100-gram-class spacecraft to be flown as swarms (100s to 1000s) in low Earth orbit (LEO). Swarms of Silicon Wafer Integrated Femtosatellites (SWIFT) present a paradigmshifting approach to distributed spacecraft development, missions, and applications. Potential applications of SWIFT swarms include sparse aperture arrays and distributed sensor networks. New swarm array configurations are introduced and shown to achieve the effective sparse aperture driven from optical performance metrics. A system cost analysis based on this comparison justifies deploying a large number of femtosatellites for sparse aperture applications. Moreover, this paper discusses promising guidance, control, and navigation methods for swarms of femtosatellites equipped with modest sensing and control capabilities.

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“…The size of SpaceChip 1 (see Table 1) was taken from the design by Atchison and Peck [7], hence it represents a near-term device. SpaceChip 2 and 3 represent scenarios with lower technology readiness levels, however they were selected to show the sensitivity of the conditions for long-lived orbits on the area-to-mass-ratio discussed later.…”

Section: A Spacecraft and Perturbation Modelmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This implies that the spacecraft has a spherical shape or its attitude is kept fixed with respect to the Sun-line. A passive Sun-pointing attitude control was proposed for millimeter-scale solar sails, based on faceted surfaces to stabilize the Sun-pointing plate [7]. Alternately, electro-chromic elements with variable reflectance can be layered at the sides of the chip to be exploited as a steering device, as demonstrated on the IKAROS mission [21].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Orbital Dynamics of "Smart-Dust" Devices with Solar Radiation Pressure and Drag

Colombo

McInnes

2011

Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics

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This paper investigates how perturbations due to asymmetric solar radiation pressure, in the presence of Earth shadow, and atmospheric drag can be balanced to obtain long-lived Earth centered orbits for swarms of micro-scale "smart dust" devices, without the use of active control. The secular variation of Keplerian elements is expressed analytically through an averaging technique. Families of solutions are then identified where Sun-synchronous apse-line precession is achieved passively to maintain asymmetric solar radiation pressure. The long-term orbit evolution is characterized by librational motion, progressively decaying due to the non-conservative effect of atmospheric drag. Long-lived orbits can then be designed through the interaction of energy gain from asymmetric solar radiation pressure and energy dissipation due to drag. In this way, the usual short drag lifetime of such high area-to-mass spacecraft can be greatly extended (and indeed selected). In addition, the effect of atmospheric drag can be exploited to ensure the rapid end-of-life decay of such devices, thus preventing long-lived orbit debris.

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A passive, sun-pointing, millimeter-scale solar sail

Cited by 47 publications

References 39 publications

Wave-Like Patterns in an Elliptical Satellite Ring

Wave-Like Patterns in an Elliptical Satellite Ring

On Development of 100-Gram-Class Spacecraft for Swarm Applications

Orbital Dynamics of "Smart-Dust" Devices with Solar Radiation Pressure and Drag

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