Electric sail phasing maneuvers with radial thrust

Orbital Maneuvers Using Low-thrust

To perform the orbital maneuvers, a software that calculates an optimal maneuver is developed. This method will be used as a reference for comparison and analises of the suboptimal methods to be used on board. This method id based on an analytical development that generate equations that can be computed in a shorter time, allowing real time applications. Key-Words: Orbital maneuvers, low thrust...

Electric Solar Wind Sail Mass Budget Model

The electric solar wind sail (E-sail) is a new type of propellantless propulsion system for Solar System transportation, which uses the natural solar wind for producing spacecraft propulsion. This paper discusses a mass breakdown and a performance model for 5 an E-sail spacecraft that hosts a scientific payload of prescribed mass. In particular, the model is able to estimate the total spacecraf...

Low-Thrust to Solar-Sail Trajectories: A Homotopic Approach

Moving an asteroid with electric solar wind sail

The electric solar wind sail (E-Sail) is a new propulsion method for interplanetary travel which was invented in 2006 and is currently under development. The E-Sail uses charged tethers to extract momentum from the solar wind particles to obtain propulsive thrust. According to current estimates, the E-Sail is 2-3 orders of magnitude better than traditional propulsion methods (chemical rockets a...

Low-Thrust Maneuvers for the Efficient Correction of Orbital Elements

In this study, low-thrust strategies aimed at the modification of specific orbital elements are investigated and presented. Closed loop guidance laws, steering the initial value of a given orbital element to a target value, are derived, implemented and tested. The thrust laws have been defined analyzing the Gauss form of the Lagrange Planetary Equations isolating the relevant contributions to c...