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Optimal Solar Sail Trajectory Analysis for Interstellar Missions

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Abstract

The optimization of an interstellar probe trajectory using solar sailing is investigated. With a single solar photonic assistance, solar sails can enable the sailcraft to gain high energy to escape the solar system with a cruise speed of greater than 10 AU/year. Based on a reasonable assumption of a jettison point at 5 AU, a new objective function with a variable scale parameter is adopted to solve the time optimal control problem using an indirect method. A technique of scaling of the adjoint variables is presented to make the optimization much easier than before. A comparison between the current results and previous studies has been conducted to show the advantages of the new objective function. In terms of the mission time, the influence of the departure point of the sailcraft from the Earth orbit is discussed without consideration of the Geo-centric escape phase. Another interesting discovery is that the angular momentum reversal trajectory is achieved as a local-optimal solution in a demonstration mission of 250 AU. Under the same initial condition, the difference between the direct and reversal flybys is discussed in detail through numerical simulations along with their advantages.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grants No.10832004). The first author would like to acknowledge the financial support provided by the China Scholarship Council, to be as a Visiting Ph.D. Student at the Department of Aerospace Engineering of Texas A&M University with TEES Research Chair Professor Kyle T. Alfriend.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Aerospace, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    Xiangyuan Zeng & Junfeng Li

  2. Department of Aerospace Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA

    Kyle. T. Alfriend & S. R. Vadali

Authors
  1. Xiangyuan Zeng
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  2. Kyle. T. Alfriend
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  3. Junfeng Li
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  4. S. R. Vadali
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Xiangyuan Zeng.

Additional information

Presented as Paper AAS 2012–234 at the AAS/AIAA 22th Space Flight Mechanics Meeting, Charleston, SC, Jan 29-Feb 02, 2012

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Zeng, X., Alfriend, K.T., Li, J. et al. Optimal Solar Sail Trajectory Analysis for Interstellar Missions. J of Astronaut Sci 59, 502–516 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40295-014-0008-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40295-014-0008-y

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