The solar photon thruster as a terrestrial pole sitter.

Abstract

Geosynchronous satellites are invisible at high latitudes. A pole-sitting spacecraft would have communication, climate-studies, and near-polar Earth observation applications. We present a pole-sitter based on the solar photon thruster (SPT), a two-sail variant of the solar sail using a large curved collector sail (always normal to the Sun) to direct sunlight against a much smaller thruster. Thrust decreases slower for an SPT than for a conventional sail arrangement as the angle between sunlight and the collector normal increases. An SPT pole-sitter is offset from the terrestrial pole so that a component of Earth gravity balances the solar radiation-pressure component pushing the SPT off station. The component of gravitational attraction of the Earth pulling the spacecraft towards Earth is also balanced by a solar radiation-pressure component. Results are presented for 80-100% collector/thruster reflectivities. For a spacecraft areal mass thickness of 0.002 kg/m(2), collector and thruster reflectivities of 0.9, the SPT can be situated above latitude 45 degrees at a distance of approximately 60 Earth radii. An SPT pole sitter would be affected by lunar perturbation, which can be compensated for by an on-board rocket thruster producing 2 x 10(-6) g acceleration, a second SPT thruster sail thrusting against the influence of the Moon, or by directing a microwave beam against the spacecraft. Since an SPT pole sitter is in a position rather than an orbit, the effect of terrestrial gravitation limits the size and design of the payload package, which limits terrestrial target resolution.