Road map to L4/L5 with a solar sail

Abstract

This paper explores the capability of solar sails to transfer a probe from the displaced Sun-Earth L 1 and L 2 libration points to the region of practical stability (RPS) around the triangular equilibrium points L 4 and L 5 . If the sailcraft arrives inside the RPS with zero synodical velocity, it will remain there with minor station keeping requirements. Moreover, the location of the RPS is ideal for space weather missions as the Sun can be observed from a different angle compared to spacecraft orbiting the L 1 point. The unstable manifolds of the displaced L 1 and L 2 points come close to these regions providing opportunities for natural transfer trajectories. By varying the solar sail orientation along the manifold, the dynamics can be altered and simple transfer trajectories that reach the RPS with few sail maneuvers are enabled. However, these trajectories are not optimal from a transfer time perspective, but can serve as suitable initial guesses for a direct optimization method to find minimum-time transfers between the displaced L 1 and L 2 points and the RPS at L 4 and L 5 .

Novel Subharmonic Resonance Periodic Orbits of a Solar Sail in Earth–Moon System

“…In recent years, solar-sail technology has been successfully applied to various missions, such as the Interplanetary Kite-craft Accelerated by Radiation Of the Sun mission by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency [2], the LightSail-1 mission by the Planetary Society [3], and NanoSail-D by NASA [4]. Due to advantageous applications in space mission design [5], solar-sail orbits around the libration points become more attractive: especially in novel orbit construction [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13].…”

Mechanical Design of Self-Reconfiguring 4D-Printed OrigamiSats: A New Concept for Solar Sailing

“…For example, Soldini et al (2019) show that instantaneous changes of the area-to-mass ratio of a spacecraft can be used to perform fuel-free transfers between Lissajous orbits in the Sun-Earth system, suggesting this could be achieved through the use of foldable "flaps" being deployed or stowed as required. Farrés et al (2019) have explored solar sails transfer for L4 and L5 lagrangian points while Soldini et al (2016) have investigated the use of shape-changing solar sails for end-oflife disposal of large spacecraft in the L2 Lagrangian point. Ceriotti et al (2014) introduce a quasi-rhombic pyramidal solar sail design in which the sail geometry is actively controlled via extendable booms, enabling orbit control.…”

Design and Simulation of a Flexible Bending Actuator for Solar Sail Attitude Control

“…Future missions adopting E-sails as propulsion methods have been studied, including using E-sails to decelerate the satellite from the speed in the order of 0.05 c to 35 km/s when approaching the Alpha Centauri system [5], and using E-sails to maintain the satellite's orbit in an artificial equilibrium point [6]. Other missions, for example, transferring a probe from L1/L2 to L4/L5 using solar sails, are discussed in [7].…”