Attitude Control and Stability Analysis of Electric Sail

Du, Chonggang; Zhu, Zheng; Kang, Junjie

doi:10.1109/taes.2022.3175166

Cited by 8 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…Indeed, observing that H is a constant of motion (as the Hamiltonian (17) does not explicitly depend on τ) and using Equations ( 12) and ( 21), the condition (23) with s = 1 (the thruster is on to start the orbital transfer) gives…”

Section: Trajectory Optimizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Since the E-sail propulsive acceleration depends on the orientation of its nominal plane [19] (that is, the mean plane containing the sail conducting tethers), the attitude control problem of an E-sail is closely related to that of its orbital control [20][21][22][23]. According to some preliminary studies [24][25][26][27], the particular orientation in which the E-sail nominal plane is perpendicular to the Sun-spacecraft line, referred to as Sun-facing configuration, may be passively maintained when the E-sail has an axisymmetric shape.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Optimal Circle-to-Ellipse Orbit Transfer for Sun-Facing E-Sail

et al. 2022

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The transfer between two coplanar Keplerian orbits of a spacecraft with a continuous-thrust propulsion system is a classical problem of astrodynamics, in which a numerical procedure is usually employed to find the transfer trajectory that optimizes (i.e., maximizes or minimizes) a given performance index such as, for example, the delivered payload mass, the propellant mass, the total flight time, or a suitable combination of them. In the last decade, this class of problem has been thoroughly analyzed in the context of heliocentric mission scenarios of a spacecraft equipped with an Electric Solar Wind Sail as primary propulsion system. The aim of this paper is to further extend the existing related literature by analyzing the optimal transfer of an Electric Solar Wind Sail-based spacecraft with a Sun-facing attitude, a particular configuration in which the sail nominal plane is perpendicular to the Sun-spacecraft (i.e., radial) direction, so that the propulsion system is able to produce its maximum propulsive acceleration magnitude. The problem consists in transferring the spacecraft, which initially traces a heliocentric circular orbit, into an elliptic coplanar orbit of given eccentricity with a minimum-time trajectory. Using a classical indirect approach for trajectory optimization, the paper shows that a simplified version of the optimal control problem can be obtained by enforcing the typical transfer constraints. The numerical simulations show that the proposed approach is able to quantify the transfer performance in a parametric and general form, with a simple and efficient algorithm.

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Section: Trajectory Optimizationmentioning

confidence: 99%