For full-scale lunar explorations, it is essential to establish constant communication with the far side of the Moon. One idea to accomplish this is telecommunication via a solar sail orbiting the point. The coupled attitude–orbit control is a promising technique to reduce a solar sail mass. This paper proposes a coupled attitude–orbit control law for a combination of solar electric propulsion and a solar sail equipped with reflectivity control devices (RCDs) in the Earth–Moon system. An artificial halo orbit that takes the solar radiation pressure into consideration is designed to be used as the reference orbit. Feedback control laws to maintain the satellite onto the orbit are designed using a backstepping method. From the numerical simulations, it is shown that the use of RCDs reduces the fuel consumption required for maintaining the satellite onto the orbit.
Solar Sail Orbital Control Using Reflectivity Variations near the Earth–Moon Point
Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics ; 41 , 2 ; 417-430
2018-02-01
Conference paper , Article (Journal)
Electronic Resource
English
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