Abstract
This work examines the problem of planet-centered orbit transfers using solar sail propulsion. Though solar sails offer unlimited , they place coupled time-dependent restrictions on thrust magnitude and direction, and the multiple objectives of an orbit transfer can make locally optimal approaches inefficient; it is therefore advantageous to use optimal control to design such trajectories. This paper presents orbit-averaged equinoctial-element equations of motion for a solar sail under a discretized and interpolated control law. These equations are used to study transfer from a geostationary transfer orbit to geostationary orbit; a locally optimal control law is used to generate initial trajectories, and Gaussian pseudospectral optimal control is applied to yield minimum-time transfers. In the default case, with sail area–mass ratio of , optimization reduces the transfer time from 1222 to 293 days. Finally, sail area per mass, sail reflectivity, and initial sun–Earth orientation are varied to explore their effects, and to provide general design guidelines for planet-centered solar sail transfers. Distinct performance regimes are observed for transfers taking longer or shorter than one year, and for reflectivities greater or less than 0.4. Additionally, initial solar position was found to drastically affect the behavior of transfers in the fast regime.
Published Version
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