Creating and maintaining Artificial Equilibrium Points (AEPs) in the restricted threebody problem is a challenging mission scenario in which a propellantless propulsion system exploits its natural potential. Indeed, in such a problem the acceleration resulting from the sum of centrifugal and gravitational forces can be balanced, for a theoretically unlimited time period, by means of a suitable continuous propulsive thrust. A thorough analysis involving the location and stability of AEPs has been addressed in a recent paper, under the assumption that the propulsion system provides a purely radial thrust with respect to the Sun, and the thrust modulus is a function of the Sun-spacecraft distance only . In that way, with a unified mathematical model, it is possible to analyze the performance of different propulsion systems, as, for example, a photonic solar sail and an Electric Solar Wind Sail (E-Sail). In particular, an E-Sail is known to be able to provide a continuous propulsive acceleration by means of Coulomb’s interaction of a number of positively charged tethers with the solar wind plasma stream.


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    Title :

    Artificial Equilibrium Points for Electric Sail with Constant Attitude



    Publication date :

    2013-01-01



    Type of media :

    Article (Journal)


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English



    Classification :

    DDC:    621



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