Station-keeping for Earth–Moon solar-sail resonant libration point orbits

Abstract

This paper investigates a dynamical reshaping control method for the station-keeping of unstable resonant libration point orbits (LPO) using the solar radiation pressure (SRP) in the solar-sail-augmented Earth–Moon Quasi-Bicircular Problem. The control strategy aims to reshape the geometrical structures defined by the unstable Floquet modes. Furthermore, asymptotic stability can be achieved by incorporating the central Floquet modes into the procedure. The control variables considered are the two attitude angles of the sail with two scenarios: one with constant lightness number and another with non-constant value. The nominal point, defined as a state on the nominal orbit used to measure the deviation of the spacecraft with respect to the nominal orbit, also plays a role in the stability and convergence rate of the control, and independently of this fact, the Jet Transport technique enables the control laws to be developed in a unified way. In addition, the controllers are obtained as Taylor polynomials in terms of the deviation between the state of the spacecraft and the isochronous point. The numerical simulations analyze the stability, dynamical and long-term behaviors, robustness to orbit determination errors and control costs. The results verify the feasibility of considering SRP for long-term maintenance of LPOs in the Earth–Moon system.