AbstractTaking inspiration from the orbital dynamics of dust, we find that spacecraft length scaling is a means of enabling infinite-impulse orbits that require no feedback control. Our candidate spacecraft is a 25μm thick, 1cm square silicon chip equipped with signal transmitting circuitry. This design reduces the total mass to less than 7.5mg and enables the spacecraft bus itself to serve as a solar sail with characteristic acceleration on the order of 0.1mm/s2. It is passive in that it maneuvers with no closed-loop actuation of orbital or attitude states. The unforced dynamics that result from an insertion orbit and a launch-vehicle separation determine its subsequent state evolution. We have developed a system architecture that uses solar radiation torques to maintain a sun-pointing heading and can be fabricated with standard microfabrication processes. This architecture has potential applications in heliocentric, geocentric, and three-body orbits.
A passive, sun-pointing, millimeter-scale solar sail
Acta Astronautica ; 67 , 1-2 ; 108-121
2009-12-13
14 pages
Article (Journal)
Electronic Resource
English
A passive, sun-pointing, millimeter-scale solar sail
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