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.


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    Title :

    A passive, sun-pointing, millimeter-scale solar sail


    Contributors:

    Published in:

    Acta Astronautica ; 67 , 1-2 ; 108-121


    Publication date :

    2009-12-13


    Size :

    14 pages




    Type of media :

    Article (Journal)


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English




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