Abstract
The employment of low-thrust propulsion systems is an attractive option for space missions requiring large changes in orbital energy. Therefore in this paper, we investigate the performance of a hybrid low-thrust propulsion system, constituted by a solar electric thruster coupledwith a solar sail. Loosely speaking, the solar sailmaybe seen as a propellantless auxiliary system capable of reducing the gravitational force acting on the spacecraft in such a way that the propellant expense for a given mission may be decreased. To quantify this effect, we analyze the problem in terms of optimization of a scalar performance index that takes into account both themission time and the propellant mass required to reach the target orbit. A weighting parameter is used to trade between these two conflicting requirements. The problem is solved using an indirect approach and the resulting optimal control law is applied to a circle-to-circle rendezvous transfer. Key features of the paper are the use of realisticmodels for both the solar electric thruster and the solar sail.
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