Design of Near-optimal Earth Escape Orbits for Solar Sail Spacecraft

Xiao-Ning Shi, Li-Tao Li, Nai-Gang Cui

Dept. Astronautical Engineering, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150001,China



Abstract:

With the increase of the interest in solar sailing, it is required to provide a basis for future detailed planetary escape mission analysis by drawing together prior work, clarifying and explaining previously anomalies. In this paper, a technique for escaping the Earth by using a solar sail is developed and numerically simulated. The spacecraft is initially in a geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO). Blended solar sail analytical control law, explicitly independent of time, are then presented, which provide near-optimal escape trajectories and maintain a safe minimum altitude and which are suitable as a potential autonomous onboard controller. This control law is investigated from a range of initial conditions and is shown to maintain the optimality previously demonstrated by the use of a single-energy gain control law but without the risk of planetary collision. Finally, it is shown that the blending solar sail analytical control law is suitable for solar sail on-board autonomously control system.ª¤

Key words:  near-optimal  solar sail  escape trajectory  analytical method  blending control lawª¤

DOI£º10.11916/j.issn.1005-9113.2013.01.003

Clc Number:V412.4

Fund: