太阳帆柔性结构动力学仿真分析

研究了太阳帆结构的有限元仿真分析问题.针对太阳帆航天器实际结构特点,建立合理的有限元模型;得出合理的边界预紧力的大小与方向;给出太阳帆航天器伸展臂对预紧力的屈曲模态分析以及屈曲临界载荷;进行了太阳帆结构的无预紧力结构模态分析与有预紧力结构模态分析,并对结果进行了比较.研究结果表明,太阳帆航天器预紧力结构模态分析更为合理,为太阳帆航天器控制系统工程设计与仿真提供了参考数据基础.     

太阳帆航天器编队维持和重构的方法研究

针对高面质比航天器可以利用太阳光压进行轨道控制的特点,本文提出一种太阳帆航天器编队构型维持和重构的方法.该方法通过控制主从航天器太阳帆姿态角和反射系数,调整主从航天器之间的光压差,产生抵消编队成员间相对运动受到摄动差或进行轨道机动时所需的连续小推力,从而实现编队构型的维持和重构.仿真结果表明,在主航天器太阳帆的姿态角和反射系数相对固定的条件下,对于太阳同步轨道上的高面质比太阳帆航天器编队,使用滑模控制方法,能够调整编队中从航天器太阳帆的姿态角和反射系数产生推力抵消摄动力影响,达到长期维持太阳帆航天器编队构型的目的;通过开环控制方法,能够调整编队中从航天器太阳帆的姿态角和反射系数产生连续小推力,在较长时间周期内实现编队重构.     

太空新航线

俄太阳帆试验失败 7月20日,俄罗斯从一艘潜艇上用一枚改装过的波浪导弹发射了名为“宇宙-1”号的太阳帆飞船。发射时,太阳帆处于折叠状态装在导弹弹头。然而,由于火箭的第三级没有与太阳帆飞船分离,太阳帆未能展开,试验失败。太阳帆飞船这一概念诞生于20世纪20年代,是一种利用太阳光的压力进行太空飞行的航天器。由于太阳光子具有源源不断、方向固定等特点,借助太阳帆为动力的航天器无须携带任何燃料,在太阳光子的撞击下,航天器的飞行速度会不断增加,并最终飞抵距地球非常遥远的天体。根据理论计算,直径约300米的太阳帆可使总重约0.5吨的飞船在200多天     

行星悬浮轨道保持控制研究

针对太阳帆航天器行星悬浮轨道保持控制问题进行了研究.首先，建立了柱坐标系下太阳帆动力学模型；然后，对模型进行线性化处理，推导出太阳帆状态方程；接着，设计线性二次型调节器(LQR)及基于遗传算法(GA)改进的控制器，对出现扰动的轨道进行控制；最后，通过仿真结果对比，表明上述控制器均可实现轨道保持控制，且基于GA改进的LQR性能明显优于传统LQR.     

应用太阳帆悬停探测哑铃形小行星

研究了太阳帆航天器在哑铃形小行星引力场内的悬停探测可行性问题。哑铃形小行星代表了一类细长形的小行星,文中首先建立哑铃形小行星的简化动力学模型。针对可变反射面积的太阳帆,给出其在小行星引力场内的悬停动力学方程,并仿真求解了哑铃形小行星附近的太阳帆可行悬停探测区域。     

太阳帆航天器悬浮轨道动力学与控制

基于线性动力学模型和非线性动力学模型,研究了太阳帆航天器日心悬浮轨道保持与控制问题.首先,推导出了柱坐标形式的太阳帆动力学方程,并在参考悬浮轨道附近线性化以建立状态方程,然后对状态方程进行可控性分析.通过合理选择控制变量加权矩阵R,用线性二次型调节器(LQR)对线性模型进行控制.将得到的控制律代入非线性模型中进行验证,表明该控制律渐近稳定,并且具有良好的控制精度,可实现太阳帆悬浮轨道控制.     

太阳帆推进任务的快速仿真方法

研究太阳帆的力学特性和轨道控制设计方法，导出太阳帆的无奇点控制律.提出通过STK中MATLAB语言编写的嵌入式脚本（Plug in Script）来将由控制律得到的光压力加速度矢量，添加到STK轨道计算力学模型中，从而进行轨道控制的方法.仿真结果表明，对于常规方法难以进行仿真分析的航天器动力学模型（如太阳帆），所提出的方法能快速灵活地支持其相应的任务，并增强任务场景的可视化，从而实现利用STK丰富的功能特性进行复杂航天任务的设计、分析和验证.     

日心悬浮轨道混合推进航天器编队构型保持研究

针对混合推进航天器编队日心悬浮轨道保持控制问题进行了研究.首先推导出在日心悬浮轨道附近的航天器编队相对运动方程，考虑到航天器间距离变化值较小且航天器间距离与航天器到太阳的距离的比值为小量，将其在悬浮轨道附近线性化.基于该线性化方程，设计了一种LQR编队控制方式，该控制方式可通过调节太阳帆的姿态及航天器间库仑力的大小对编队构型进行改变或保持，具有响应速度快和控制简单的特点.最后对控制律进行数值仿真，表明该控制方法能实现编队.     

世界首颗太阳帆卫星即将升空

世界上第一个以太阳帆为推进系统的航天器——“宇宙1号”正在紧锣密鼓地准备，现已进入总装、测试阶段。初步计划于2005年3月1日发射。     

驭光而行的“光帆”飞船

正"光帆"飞船是由行星协会开展的一个民众资助的项目。在这个项目中,行星协会将一个小型的航天器发射到地球轨道。这个航天器是靠巨大的反光帆驱动的,帆的面积为32平方米。太阳帆以太阳能为动力——通过光驱动飞行。光是由被称为光子的能量包形成。尽管光子没有质量,但其作为光包运行时具有能量和动量。太阳帆航天器依靠大面积的轻型镜面——帆板——来捕获光的动能。当光在帆面得到     

Solar sailing in realistic mode,based on a locally-optimal control laws

Ballistic design of solar sailing missions in the solar system is composed of defining the design parameters, the control programs, and the trajectories that provide performance goals of a flight. The use of a solar sail spacecraft imposes specific restrictions on mission parameters that include the degradation limit on the flight duration, the maximum temperature of solar sail's surface, the minimum distance from the Sun, the maximum angular velocity of the spacecraft's rotation and others.Many authors considered the impact of these restrictions on the design of the mission separately, but they used a sophisticated method of finding the exact optimal motion control or applied the most straightforward laws of motion control. This paper uses local-optimal control laws at the complete mathematical models of motion and functioning of solar sail spacecraft to describe a technique of designing interplanetary missions. The described method avoids the need to obtain an accurate optimal solution to the control problem and does not cause significant computational difficulties.     

Solar sail near the Sun: Point-like and extended models of radiation source

Some modifications of solar sail radiation pressure forces on a plate and on a sphere for use in the numerical simulation of ‘local-optimal’ (or ‘instantaneously optimal’) trajectories of a spacecraft with a solar sail are suggested. The force model development is chronologically reviewed, including its connection with solar sail surface reflective and thermal properties. The sail surface is considered as partly absorbing, partly reflective (specular and diffuse), partly transparent. Thermal balance is specified because the spacecraft moves from circular Earth orbit to near-Sun regions and thermal limitations on the sail film are taken into account. A spherical sail-balloon can be used in near-Sun regions for scientific research beginning with the solar-synchronous orbit and moving outward from the Sun. The Sun is considered not only as a point-like source of radiation but also as an extended source of radiation which is assumed to be consequently as a point-like source of radiation, a uniformly bright flat solar disc and uniformly bright solar sphere.     

Spinning solar sail orbit steering via spin rate control

The orbit of a solar sail can be controlled by changing the attitude of the spacecraft. In this study, we consider the spinning solar power sail IKAROS (Interplanetary Kite-craft Accelerated by Radiation Of the Sun), which is managed by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). The IKAROS attitude, i.e., the direction of its spin-axis, is nominally controlled by the rhumb-line control method. By utilizing the solar radiation torque, however, we are able to change the direction of the spin-axis by only controlling its spin rate. With this spin rate control, we can also control indirectly the solar sail’s trajectory. The main objective of this study is to construct the orbit control strategy of the solar sail via the spin-rate control method. We evaluate this strategy in terms of its propellant consumption compared to the rhumb-line control method. Finally, we present the actual flight attitude data of IKAROS and the change of its trajectory.     

Systems design of a hybrid sail pole-sitter

This paper presents the preliminary systems design of a pole-sitter. This is a spacecraft that hovers over an Earth pole, creating a platform for full hemispheric observation of the polar regions, as well as direct-link telecommunications. To provide the necessary thrust, a hybrid propulsion system combines a solar sail with a more mature solar electric propulsion (SEP) thruster. Previous work by the authors showed that the combination of the two allows lower propellant mass fractions, at the cost of increased system complexity. This paper compares the pure SEP spacecraft with the hybrid spacecraft in terms of the launch mass necessary to deliver a certain payload for a given mission duration. A mass budget is proposed, and the conditions investigated under which the hybrid sail saves on the initial spacecraft initial mass. It is found that the hybrid spacecraft with near- to mid-term sail technology has a lower initial mass than the SEP case if the mission duration is 7 years or more, with greater benefits for longer duration missions. The hybrid spacecraft with far-term sail technology outperforms the pure SEP case even for short missions.     

Optimal steering law of refractive sail

The interaction between electromagnetic waves and matter is the working principle of a photon-propelled spacecraft, which extracts momentum from the solar radiation to obtain a propulsive acceleration. An example is offered by solar sails, which use a thin membrane to reflect the impinging photons. The solar radiation momentum may actually be transferred to matter by means of various optical phenomena, such as absorption, emission, or refraction. This paper deals with the novel concept of a refractive sail, through which the Sun’s light is refracted by crossing a film made of polymeric micro-prisms. The main feature of a refractive sail is to give a large transverse component of thrust even when the sail nominal plane is orthogonal to the Sun-spacecraft line. Starting from the recent literature results, this paper proposes a semi-analytical thrust model that estimates the characteristics of the propulsive acceleration vector as a function of the sail attitude angles. Such a mathematical model is then used to analyze a simplified Earth-Mars and Earth-Venus interplanetary transfer within an optimal framework.     

The interstellar heliopause probe technology reference study

The interstellar heliopause probe (IHP) is one of ESA’s technology reference studies (TRS). The TRS aim to focus the development of strategically important technologies of relevance to future science missions by studying technologically demanding and scientifically interesting missions that are currently not part of the science mission programme.

Equipped with a highly integrated payload suite (HIPS), the IHP will perform in situ exploration of the heliopause and the heliospheric interface. The HIPS, which is a standard element in all TRSs, miniaturize payloads through resource reduction by using miniaturized components and sensors, and by sharing common structures and payload functionality.

To achieve the scientific requirements of the mission, the spacecraft is to leave the heliosphere as close to the heliosphere nose as possible and reach a distance of 200 AU from the Sun within 25 years. This is possible by using a trajectory with two solar flybys and a solar sail with characteristic acceleration of 1.1 mm/s², which corresponds to a 245 × 245 m² solar sail and a sail thickness of 1–2 μm. The trajectory facilitates a modest sail design that could potentially be developed in a reasonable timeframe.

In this paper, an update to the results of studies being performed on this mission will be given and the current mission baseline and spacecraft design will be described. Furthermore, alternative solar sail systems and enabling technologies will be discussed.     

Effects of optical parameter measurement uncertainties and solar irradiance fluctuations on solar sailing

The heliocentric orbital dynamics of a spacecraft propelled by a solar sail is affected by some uncertainty sources, including possible inaccuracies in the measurement of the sail film optical properties. Moreover, the solar radiation pressure, which is responsible for the solar sail propulsive acceleration generation, is not time-constant and is subject to fluctuations that are basically unpredictable and superimposed to the well-known 11-year solar activity cycle. In this context, this work aims at investigating the effects of such uncertainties on the actual heliocentric trajectory of a solar sail by means of stochastic simulations performed with a generalized polynomial chaos procedure. The numerical results give an estimation of their impact on the actual heliocentric trajectory and identify whether some of the uncertainty sources are more relevant than others. This is a fundamental information for directing more accurate theoretical and experimental efforts toward the most important parameters, in order to obtain an accurate knowledge of the solar sail thrust vector characteristics and, eventually, of the spacecraft heliocentric position.     

CubeSail: A low cost CubeSat based solar sail demonstration mission

CubeSail is a nano-solar sail mission based on the 3U CubeSat standard, which is currently being designed and built at the Surrey Space Centre, University of Surrey. CubeSail will have a total mass of around 3 kg and will deploy a 5 × 5 m sail in low Earth orbit. The primary aim of the mission is to demonstrate the concept of solar sailing and end-of-life de-orbiting using the sail membrane as a drag-sail. The spacecraft will have a compact 3-axis stabilised attitude control system, which uses three magnetic torquers aligned with the spacecraft principle axis as well as a novel two-dimensional translation stage separating the spacecraft bus from the sail. CubeSail’s deployment mechanism consists of four novel booms and four-quadrant sail membranes. The proposed booms are made from tape-spring blades and will deploy the sail membrane from a 2U CubeSat standard structure. This paper presents a systems level overview of the CubeSat mission, focusing on the mission orbit and de-orbiting, in addition to the deployment, attitude control and the satellite bus.     

Paths not taken – The Gossamer roadmap’s other options

Highly efficient low-thrust propulsion is increasingly applied beyond commercial use, also in mainstream and flagship science missions, in combination with gravity assist propulsion. Another recent development is the growth of small spacecraft solutions, not in size but in numbers and individual capabilities.Just over ten years ago, the DLR-ESTEC Gossamer Roadmap to Solar Sailing was set up to guide technology developments towards a propellant-less and highly efficient class of spacecraft for solar system exploration and applications missions: small spacecraft solar sails designed for carefree handling and equipped with carried application modules.Soon, in three dedicated Gossamer Roadmap Science Working Groups it initiated studies of missions uniquely feasible with solar sails such as Displaced L₁ (DL1) space weather advance warning and monitoring, Solar Polar Orbiter (SPO) delivery to very high inclination heliocentric orbit, and multiple Near-Earth Asteroid (NEA) rendezvous (MNR). Together, they demonstrate the capability of near-term solar sails to achieve at least in the inner solar system almost any kind of heliocentric orbit within 10 years, from the Earth-co-orbital to the extremely inclined, eccentric and even retrograde. Noted as part of the MNR study, sail-propelled head-on retrograde kinetic impactors (RKI) go to this extreme to achieve the highest possible specific kinetic energy for the deflection of hazardous asteroids.At DLR, the experience gained in the development of deployable membrane structures leading up to the successful ground deployment test of a (20 m)², i.e., 20 m by 20 m square solar sail at DLR Cologne in 1999 was revitalized and directed towards a 3-step small spacecraft development line from as-soon-as-possible sail deployment demonstration (Gossamer-1) via in-flight evaluation of sail attitude control actuators (Gossamer-2) to an envisaged proving-the-principle flight in the Earth-Moon system (Gossamer-3). First, it turned the concept of solar sail deployment on its head by introducing four separable Boom Sail Deployment Units (BSDU) to be discarded after deployment, enabling lightweight 3-axis stabilized sailcraft. By 2015, this effort culminated in the ground-qualified technology of the DLR Gossamer-1 deployment demonstrator Engineering Qualification Model (EQM). For mission types using separable payloads, such as SPO, MNR and RKI, design concepts can be derived from the BSDU characteristic of DLR Gossamer solar sail technology which share elements with the separation systems of asteroid nanolanders like MASCOT. These nano-spacecraft are an ideal match for solar sails in micro-spacecraft format whose launch configurations are compatible with ESPA and ASAP secondary payload platforms.Like any roadmap, this one contained much more than the planned route from departure to destination and the much shorter distance actually travelled. It is full of lanes, narrow and wide, detours and shortcuts, options and decision branches. Some became the path taken on which we previously reported. More were explored along the originally planned path or as new sidings in search of better options when circumstance changed and the project had to take another turn. But none were dead ends, they just faced the inevitable changes when roadmaps face realities and they were no longer part of the road ahead. To us, they were valuable lessons learned or options up our sleeves. But for future sailors they may be on their road ahead.     

Solar sail science mission applications and advancement

Solar sailing has long been envisaged as an enabling or disruptive technology. The promise of open-ended missions allows consideration of radically new trajectories and the delivery of spacecraft to previously unreachable or unsustainable observation outposts. A mission catalogue is presented of an extensive range of potential solar sail applications, allowing identification of the key features of missions which are enabled, or significantly enhance, through solar sail propulsion. Through these considerations a solar sail application-pull technology development roadmap is established, using each mission as a technology stepping-stone to the next.