Solar sail propulsion systems enable a wide range of missions that require constant thrust or high delta-V over long mission times. One particularly challenging mission type is a comet rendezvous mission. This paper presents optimal low-thrust trajectory designs for a range of sailcraft performance metrics and mission transit times that enables a comet rendezvous mission. These optimal trajectory results provide a trade space which can be parameterized in terms of mission duration and sailcraft performance parameters such that a design space for a small satellite comet chaser mission is identified. These results show that a feasible space exists for a small satellite to perform a comet chaser mission in a reasonable mission time.


    Access

    Access via TIB

    Check availability in my library


    Export, share and cite



    Title :

    Chasing a Comet with a Solar Sail


    Contributors:
    R. W. Stough (author) / A. F. Heaton (author) / M. S. Whorton (author)

    Publication date :

    2008


    Size :

    9 pages


    Type of media :

    Report


    Type of material :

    No indication


    Language :

    English




    Chasing a Comet with a Solar Sail

    Stough, Robert W. / Heaton, Andrew F. / Whorton, Mark S. | NTRS | 2008


    Chasing a Comet with a Solar Sail (AAS 08-171)

    Stough, R.W. / Heaton, A.F. / Whorton, M.S. et al. | British Library Conference Proceedings | 2008


    Solar Sail Application to Comet Nucleus Sample Return

    Taylor, Travis S. / Moton, Tryshanda T. / Robinson, Don et al. | NTRS | 2003


    Solar Sail Application to Comet Nucleus Sample Return

    T. S. Taylor / T. T. Moton / D. Robinson et al. | NTIS | 2003


    Solar Sail Application to Comet Nucleus Sample Return

    Taylor, T. / Moton, T. / Robinson, D. et al. | AIAA | 2003