Electric sail,photonic sail and deorbiting applications of the freely guided photonic blade

We consider a freely guided photonic blade (FGPB) which is a centrifugally stretched sheet of photonic sail membrane that can be tilted by changing the centre of mass or by other means. The FGPB can be installed at the tip of each main tether of an electric solar wind sail (E-sail) so that one can actively manage the tethers to avoid their mutual collisions and to modify the spin rate of the sail if needed. This enables a more scalable and modular E-sail than the baseline approach where auxiliary tethers are used for collision avoidance. For purely photonic sail applications one can remove the tethers and increase the size of the blades to obtain a novel variant of the heliogyro that can have a significantly higher packing density than the traditional heliogyro. For satellite deorbiting in low Earth orbit (LEO) conditions, analogous designs exist where the E-sail effect is replaced by the negative polarity plasma brake effect and the photonic pressure by atmospheric drag. We conclude that the FGPB appears to be an enabling technique for diverse applications. We also outline a way of demonstrating it on ground and in LEO at low cost.     

电动帆轨迹优化及其性能分析

电动帆是一种新兴的无推进剂损耗的推进方式,利用太阳风的动能冲力飞行。电动帆由数百根长而细的金属链所组成,这些金属链通过空间飞行器自旋展开,太阳能电子枪向外喷射电子,使金属链始终保持在高度的正电位,这些带电的金属链会排斥太阳风质子,利用太阳风的动能冲力推动空间飞行器驶向目标方向。针对电动帆轨迹优化问题,提出采用Gauss伪谱法进行轨迹优化,克服了间接法对协态变量初值敏感的缺点。考虑在太阳风暴等原因造成特征加速度改变的情况,基于Gauss伪谱法实现电动帆在线轨迹重新规划,提高电动帆对太阳风不确定性的适应能力。最后以太阳系外探测任务为例,对电动帆和太阳帆的性能进行对比,仿真结果表明电动帆在星际远航任务中所用时间较短。     

NanoSail-D: A solar sail demonstration mission

In the early to mid-2000s, NASA made substantial progress in the development of solar sail propulsion systems. Solar sail propulsion uses the solar radiation pressure exerted by the momentum transfer of reflected photons to generate a net force on a spacecraft. To date, solar sail propulsion systems were designed for large robotic spacecraft. Recently, however, NASA has been investigating the application of solar sails for small satellite propulsion. The NanoSail-D is a subscale solar sail system designed for possible small spacecraft applications. The NanoSail-D mission flew on board the ill-fated Falcon Rocket launched August 2, 2008, and due to the failure of that rocket, never achieved orbit. The NanoSail-D flight spare is ready for flight and a suitable launch arrangement is being actively pursued. This paper will present an introduction solar sail propulsion systems and an overview of the NanoSail-D spacecraft.     

太阳帆推进

太阳帆依靠反射太阳光光子产生推力,在飞行任务的整个过程推力连续作用于飞行器上而不需要任何推进剂。太阳帆可广泛应用于低成本大速度增量的太阳系飞行任务,具有其它推进系统无法替代的优点。简要介绍了太阳帆推进的机理及研究现状,给出了太阳帆飞行器的主要性能参数及需要解决的主要技术关键。     

Optimal control laws for heliocentric transfers with a magnetic sail

A magnetic sail is an advanced propellantless propulsion system that uses the interaction between the solar wind and an artificial magnetic field generated by the spacecraft, to produce a propulsive thrust in interplanetary space. The aim of this paper is to collect the available experimental data, and the simulation results, to develop a simplified mathematical model that describes the propulsive acceleration of a magnetic sail, in an analytical form, for mission analysis purposes. Such a mathematical model is then used for estimating the performance of a magnetic sail-based spacecraft in a two-dimensional, minimum time, deep space mission scenario. In particular, optimal and locally optimal steering laws are derived using an indirect approach. The obtained results are then applied to a mission analysis involving both an optimal Earth–Venus (circle-to-circle) interplanetary transfer, and a locally optimal Solar System escape trajectory. For example, assuming a characteristic acceleration of 1 mm/s², an optimal Earth–Venus transfer may be completed within about 380 days.     

Station keeping of a solar sail around a Halo orbit

Solar sails are a concept of spacecraft propulsion that takes advantage of solar radiation pressure to propel a spacecraft. Although the thrust provided by a solar sail is small it is constant and unlimited. This offers the chance to deal with novel mission concept. In this work we want to discuss the controllability of a spacecraft around a Halo orbit by means of a solar sail. We will describe the natural dynamics for a solar sail around a Halo orbit. By natural dynamics we mean the behaviour of the trajectory of a solar sail when no control on the sail orientation is applied. We will then discuss how a sequence of changes on the sail orientation will affects the sail's trajectory, and we will use this information to derive efficient station keeping strategies. Finally we will check the robustness of these strategies including different sources of errors in our simulations.     

Europa Lander

A Europa Lander mission has been assigned high priority for the post-2005 time frame in NASA's Space Science Enterprise Strategic Plan. Europa is one of the most scientifically interesting objects in the solar system because of the strong possibility that a liquid water ocean exists underneath its ice-covered surface. The primary scientific goals of the proposed Europa Lander mission are to characterize the surface material from a recent outflow and look for evidence of pre-biotic and possibly biotic chemistry. The baseline mission concept involves landing a single spacecraft on the surface of Europa with the capability to acquire samples of material, perform detailed chemical analysis of the samples, and transmit the results to Earth. This paper provides a discussion of the benefits and status of the key spacecraft and instrument technologies needed to accomplish the science objectives. Also described are variations on the baseline concept including the addition of small auxiliary probes and an experimental ice penetration probe.     

Applying international space station (ISS) and solar-sail technology to the exploration and diversion of small,dark near earth objects (NEO's)

Space-Station technology, micron-thick 100-m solar sails, and a near-Earth propulsion system allow exploration of small, dark Near-Earth-Objects (NEO's) of cometary origin. Early crewed missions to NEO's could analyze the objects' properties and evaluate resource-mining possibilities. Later missions to Earth-threatening 100-m radius NEO's could deploy NEO-centered, high-area, low-mass reflective structures. The solar gravitational parameter (GM_sun) on a NEO is slightly reduced by increased radiation pressure. The central-force-field equations reveal that NEO eccentricity and average solar distance are thereby slightly increased. Given decades of warning and long-lived reflective canopies, such structures can convert Earth-impacts into near-misses. Although not suitable for NEO mining, such structures are superior to nuclear detonations because (as revealed by the 1994 Jupiter-comet interaction) NEO calving may be a consequence of explosions. NEO despinning is not required.     

Design of optimal earth pole-sitter transfers using low-thrust propulsion

Recent studies have shown the feasibility of an Earth pole-sitter mission using low-thrust propulsion. This mission concept involves a spacecraft following the Earth's polar axis to have a continuous, hemispherical view of one of the Earth's poles. Such a view will enhance future Earth observation and telecommunications for high latitude and polar regions. To assess the accessibility of the pole-sitter orbit, this paper investigates optimum Earth pole-sitter transfers employing low-thrust propulsion. A launch from low Earth orbit (LEO) by a Soyuz Fregat upper stage is assumed after which solar electric propulsion is used to transfer the spacecraft to the pole-sitter orbit. The objective is to minimize the mass in LEO for a given spacecraft mass to be inserted into the pole-sitter orbit. The results are compared with a ballistic transfer that exploits manifold-like trajectories that wind onto the pole-sitter orbit. It is shown that, with respect to the ballistic case, low-thrust propulsion can achieve significant mass savings in excess of 200 kg for a pole-sitter spacecraft of 1000 kg upon insertion. To finally obtain a full low-thrust transfer from LEO up to the pole-sitter orbit, the Fregat launch is replaced by a low-thrust, minimum time spiral, which provides further mass savings, but at the cost of an increased time of flight.     

The Suess-Urey mission (return of solar matter to Earth)

The Suess-Urey (S-U) mission has been proposed as a NASA Discovery mission to return samples of matter from the Sun to the Earth for isotopic and chemical analyses in terrestrial laboratories to provide a major improvement in our knowledge of the average chemical and isotopic composition of the solar system. The S-U spacecraft and sample return capsule will be placed in a halo orbit around the L1 Sun-Earth libration point for two years to collect solar wind ions which implant into large passive collectors made of ultra-pure materials. Constant Spacecraft-Sun-Earth geometries enable simple spin stabilized attitude control, simple passive thermal control, and a fixed medium gain antenna. Low data requirements and the safety of a Sun-pointed spinner, result in extremely low mission operations costs.     

Single crystal mo solar thermal thruster for microsatellites

One potentially attractive propulsion concept offering significant payload gains for orbit transfer from LEO to higher orbits, station keeping and attitude control of spacecraft is thermal propulsion using light gas (typically hydrogen) as propellant and various kinds of heat energy. Solar Thermal Propulsion (STP) is a typical thermal propulsion with high Isp (500 – 1,000 s) in an appropriate thrust magnitude range and provides possibly much less space pollution than conventional chemical propulsion.

This paper presents the test results of a 30 mm dia. (medium-sized) windowless type of single crystal Mo thruster for orbit transfer of 50 kg class microsatellites. The cavity dia. is 20 mm, double the size of the previous model, and can apply to a primary solar reflector of up to 3.5 m dia., which is the maximum size containable in the H-II rocket fairing without segmentation. The performed mission analyses indicate that this size of STP is suitable to orbit transfer of 50 kg class microsatellites, such as LEO to GEO, or only multiple apogee kicks from GTO to GEO or deep space missions.     

Solar sail formation flying on an inclined Earth orbit

The versatility of solar sail propulsion can be utilized in the exploration of Earth’s magnetotail. An inclined periodic orbit with respect to ecliptic is possible for a solar sail with its orbital plane in synchronous rotation with the sun. Solar sail evolving on such an inclined orbit is free of Earth shadow. Formation flying of a cluster of sails around such an inclined periodic orbit is investigated in this paper. The solution of the first-order approximation to the linear relative motion is used to qualitatively analyze the configurations of relative orbits. Since the relative motion is unstable, active control is necessary to keep a periodic relative motion. A typical LQR method is employed to stabilize the relative motion. The design method is validated by numerical examples.     

Mission analysis and systems design of a near-term and far-term pole-sitter mission

This paper provides a detailed mission analysis and systems design of a near-term and far-term pole-sitter mission. The pole-sitter concept was previously introduced as a solution to the poor temporal resolution of polar observations from highly inclined, low Earth orbits and the poor high-latitude coverage from geostationary orbit. It considers a spacecraft that is continuously above either the north or south pole and, as such, can provide real-time, continuous and hemispherical coverage of the polar regions. Being on a non-Keplerian orbit, a continuous thrust is required to maintain the pole-sitter position. For this, two different propulsion strategies are proposed, which result in a near-term pole-sitter mission using solar electric propulsion (SEP) and a far-term pole-sitter mission where the SEP thruster is hybridized with a solar sail. For both propulsion strategies, minimum propellant pole-sitter orbits are designed. In order to maximize the spacecraft mass at the start of the operations phase of the mission, the transfer from Earth to the pole-sitter orbit is designed and optimized assuming either a Soyuz or an Ariane 5 launch. The maximized mass upon injection into the pole-sitter orbit is subsequently used in a detailed mass budget analysis that will allow for a trade-off between mission lifetime and payload mass capacity. Also, candidate payloads for a range of applications are investigated. Finally, transfers between north and south pole-sitter orbits are considered to overcome the limitations in observations due to the tilt of the Earth's rotational axis that causes the poles to be alternately situated in darkness. It will be shown that in some cases these transfers allow for propellant savings, enabling a further extension of the pole-sitter mission.     

Satellite pitch and roll attitude maneuvers through very short tethers

Explored here is the feasibility of achieving satellite pitch and roll attitude maneuvers through tethers. The proposed tethered satellite system (TSS) comprises of four identical tethers connecting the auxiliary mass to the satellite at its four distinct off-centered and equiangularly spaced points. The open-loop tether length control laws have been developed in order to achieve arbitrary pitch and roll attitude slewing maneuvers. Numerical simulation of the nonlinear governing equations of motion for these tether length variations establishes the feasibility of executing fixed as well as chase-slewing maneuvers. Nearly passive nature of the proposed mechanism using very short tethers along with small auxiliary mass needed makes the concept particularly attractive for future space missions.     

Novel mission concepts for polar coverage: An overview of recent developments and possible future applications

The paper provides a survey of novel mission concepts for continuous, hemispheric polar observation and direct-link polar telecommunications. It is well known that these services cannot be provided by traditional platforms: geostationary satellites do not cover high-latitude regions, while low- and medium-orbit Sun-synchronous spacecraft only cover a narrow swath of the Earth at each passage. Concepts that are proposed in the literature are described, including the pole-sitter concept (in which a spacecraft is stationary above the pole), spacecraft in artificial equilibrium points in the Sun–Earth system and non-Keplerian polar Molniya orbits. Additionally, novel displaced eight-shaped orbits at Lagrangian points are presented. For many of these concepts, a continuous acceleration is required and propulsion systems include solar electric propulsion, solar sail and a hybridisation of the two. Advantages and drawbacks of each mission concept are assessed, and a comparison in terms of high-latitude coverage and distance, spacecraft mass, payload and lifetime is presented. Finally, the paper will describe a number of potential applications enabled by these concepts, focusing on polar Earth observation and telecommunications.     

Exploring the solar system galactic frontier in extreme ultraviolet

The solar system galactic frontier—the region where the expanding solar wind meets the surrounding galactic medium—remains poorly explored. The sheer size of the essentially asymmetric heliosphere calls for remote techniques to probe the properties of its global time-varying three-dimensional boundary. The Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) mission (launch in 2008) will image the region between the termination shock and the heliopause, the heliospheric sheath, in fluxes of energetic neutral atoms. Global imaging in extreme ultraviolet (EUV) will likely be the next logical step in remote exploration of the galactic frontier from 1 AU. Imaging in EUV will establish directional and spectral properties of (1) the glow of singly charged helium (He⁺) ions in the interstellar and solar wind plasmas; (2) emissions of hot plasma in the Local Bubble; and (3) characteristic emissions of the solar wind. Global imaging with ultrahigh sensitivity and ultrahigh spectral resolution will map the heliopause and reveal the three-dimensional flow pattern of the solar wind, including the flow over the Sun's poles. This article presents the emerging concept of the experiment and space mission for heliosphere global imaging in EUV.     

Comparative assessment of human–Mars-mission technologies and architectures

We compare a variety of mission scenarios to assess the strengths and weaknesses of options for Mars exploration. The mission design space is modeled along two dimensions: trajectory architectures and propulsion system technologies. We examine direct, semi-direct, stop-over, semi-cycler, and cycler architectures, and we include electric propulsion, nuclear thermal rockets, methane and oxygen production on Mars, Mars water excavation, aerocapture, and reusable propulsion systems in our technology assessment. The mission sensitivity to crew size, vehicle masses, and crew travel time is also examined. Many different combinations of technologies and architectures are applied to the same Mars mission to determine which combinations provide the greatest potential reduction in the injected mass to LEO. We approximate the technology readiness level of a mission to rank development risk, but omit development cost and time calculations in our assessment. It is found that Earth–Mars semi-cyclers and cyclers require the least injected mass to LEO of any architecture and that the discovery of accessible water on Mars has the most dramatic effect on the evolution of Mars exploration.     

Coupling of system resource margins through the use of electric propulsion: Implications in preparing for the Dawn mission to Ceres and Vesta

The Dawn project is progressing toward its 2007 launch on a mission to orbit main belt asteroids (1) Ceres and (4) Vesta. Designed to provide insights into important questions about the evolution of the solar system, Dawn will spend more than 0.5 years in orbit about each of these bodies. This challenging mission is enabled by an ion propulsion system. In contrast to missions that use conventional chemical propulsion, the use of this system creates a strong coupling of allowable flight system mass and available power, thereby requiring different methods of managing these and other technical resources. Now that the project is nearing launch, the refinement of resource estimates allows the identification of excess margin, which is being applied in novel ways to benefit the project both in development and in operations.     

Orbital mechanics about small bodies

Small solar system bodies such as asteroids and comets are of significant interest for both scientific and human exploration missions. However, their orbital environments are among the most highly perturbed and extreme environments found in the solar system. Uncontrolled trajectories are highly unstable in general and may either impact or escape in timespans of hours to days. Even with active control, the chaotic nature of motion about these bodies can effectively randomize a trajectory within a few orbits, creating fundamental difficulties for the navigation of spacecraft in these environments. In response to these challenges our research has identified robust and stable orbit solutions and mission designs across the whole range of small body sizes and spin states that are of interest for scientific and human exploration. This talk will describe the challenges of exploring small bodies and present the practical solutions that have been discovered which enable their exploration across the range of small body types and sizes.