Abstract

This paper discusses the attitude stability criteria for spinning spacecraft equipped with large flexible membrane, such as solar sail. One actual realization of such a configuration is IKAROS, which is the world-first interplanetary solar sail spacecraft launched by JAXA in 2010. The authors previously derived stability criteria for spinning sail craft. This paper revisits the stability criteria of spinning solar sail spacecraft, and shows how it has been applied to the practical design of the IKAROS spacecraft configuration. The validity of the stability criteria is then evaluated by some numerical simulations and flight data of IKAROS.

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