Equivalent Flux Function Smoothing in the Problem of Solar Cells Radiation Degradation Minimization During a Low-Thrust Geostationary Orbit Insertion

Abstract

The paper describes a modified smooth approximation method for smoothing the dependence of the equivalent fluence of charged particles of the Earth’s Van Allen radiation belts on time and position in near-Earth space. It is shown that this method can be effectively used to solve the problems of minimizing radiation-induced degradation of spacecraft solar cell arrays. The latter problems involve the variation of the trajectory that the spacecraft follows during an electric propulsion transfer from an initial orbit to a geostationary one.