Abstract
The aim of this paper is to analyze optimal trajectories of a solar sail-based spacecraft in missions towards the outer Solar System region. The paper proposes a simplified approach able to estimate the minimum flight time required to reach a given (sufficiently high) heliocentric distance. In particular, the effect of a set of solar photonic assists on the overall mission performance is analyzed with a simplified numerical approach. A comparison with results taken from the existing literature show the soundness of the proposed approach.
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Abbreviations
- \(\mathbb {A}\) :
-
System dynamics matrix; see Eq. (5)
- \(\{a, \, e, \, \omega , \, \nu \}\) :
-
Modified equinoctial orbital elements
- \(a_\mathrm{c}\) :
-
Characteristic acceleration, mm/s\({^2}\)
- \(a_{\max }\) :
-
Maximum propulsive acceleration, mm/s\(^{2}\)
- \(\varvec{b}\) :
-
Auxiliary vector; see Eq. (6)
- \(\{p, \, f, \, g, \, L\}\) :
-
Modified equinoctial orbital elements
- q :
-
Auxiliary parameter
- t :
-
Flight time, \(\mathrm{years}\)
- \(\varvec{u}\) :
-
Control vector; see Eq. (10)
- \(\varvec{x}\) :
-
State vector; see Eq. (1)
- \(\alpha\) :
-
Solar sail pitch angle, deg
- \(\mu _{\odot }\) :
-
Sun’s gravitational parameter, km\(^{3}\)/s\(^{2}\)
- 0:
-
Initial value
- f :
-
Final value
- i :
-
Generic arc
- \(\text {obj}\) :
-
Target value
- \(\cdot\) :
-
Time derivative
- \(\text {T}\) :
-
Transpose matrix
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Caruso, A., Niccolai, L., Quarta, A.A. et al. Solar Sail Simplified Optimal Control Law for Reaching High Heliocentric Distances. Aerotec. Missili Spaz. 100, 337–344 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42496-021-00100-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42496-021-00100-7