Abstract
Displaced orbits for spacecraft propelled by electric sails are investigated as an alternative to the use of solar sails. The orbital dynamics of electric sails based spacecraft are studied within a spherical coordinate system, which permits finding the solutions of displaced electric sail orbits and optimize transfer trajectory. Transfer trajectories from Earth's orbit to displaced orbit are also studied in an optimal framework, by using genetic algorithm and Gauss pseudospectral method. The initial guesses for the state and control histories used in the Gauss pseudospectral method are interpolated from the best solution of a genetic algorithm. Numerical simulations show that the electric sail is able to perform the transfer from Earth’s orbit to displaced orbit in acceptable time, and the hybrid optimization method has the capability to search the feasible and optimal solution without any initial value guess.
Highlights
Displaced orbits are non-Keplerian orbits displaced away from the center of the central body, by applying a continuous thrust to counterbalance the gravity
The structure of the paper is as follows: dynamical equations are derived in Section 2; solutions of displaced electric sail orbits are outlined in Section 3; the implementation of the hybrid method for transfer trajectory optimization is described in Section 4; the numerical results and a conclusion follow in Sections 5 and 6
The initial guesses for the state and control histories used in the Gauss pseudospectral method are interpolated from the best solution of a genetic
Summary
Displaced orbits are non-Keplerian orbits displaced away from the center of the central body, by applying a continuous thrust to counterbalance the gravity. The thrust acceleration level of solar sail is rather low to maintain high displacement orbits [7], because its reflecting membrane surface is not lightweight enough. For this problem, we proposed using electric sails as propulsion system to maintain displaced orbits. The structure of the paper is as follows: dynamical equations are derived in Section 2; solutions of displaced electric sail orbits are outlined in Section 3; the implementation of the hybrid method for transfer trajectory optimization is described in Section 4; the numerical results and a conclusion follow in Sections 5 and 6
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