Highlights The combination of an electric solar wind sail and an electric thruster is proposed. A multi-objective optimization algorithm is used to evaluate mission performance. Circle-to-circle Earth-Mars and Earth-Venus transfers are used as test case scenarios. A small propellant consumption allows transfer time to be significantly reduced.

    Abstract An electric solar wind sail is a propellantless propulsive system that generates thrust by exploiting the electrostatic interaction between solar wind ions and one or more charged tethers. Assuming a realistic near-term design in which the sail is composed of a limited number of tethers, the propulsive acceleration provided to the spacecraft is small. Moreover, according to a recent thrust model, the propulsive acceleration vector is constrained to lie in a cone centered on the outward radial direction with half-angle equal to about 20 degrees, resulting in a small circumferential component of the propulsive acceleration. In order to overcome these issues, a possible strategy consists in combining the electric sail with an electric thruster that provides a low thrust steerable around the circumferential direction. The effectiveness of such a combination is thoroughly analyzed in this work for deep-space heliocentric transfers. Transfer trajectories are obtained as outputs of a multi-objective optimization procedure, in which a suitable linear function of the flight time and the propellant consumption is minimized, considering different relative weights of the two competing requirements. Two exemplary case studies, consisting of Earth-Mars and Earth-Venus ephemeris-free circle-to-circle transfers, are presented to show the effectiveness of the proposed arrangement.


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    Title :

    Optimal deep-space heliocentric transfers with an electric sail and an electric thruster


    Contributors:

    Published in:

    Publication date :

    2023-08-28


    Size :

    10 pages




    Type of media :

    Article (Journal)


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English




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