The Near Earth Asteroid (NEA) Scout is a solar sail mission whose objective is to scout at least one Near Earth Asteroid in preparation for manned missions to asteroids. NEA Scout will use a solar sail as the primary means of propulsion. Thus it is important for mission planning to accurately characterize the thrust of the sail. Additionally, the solar sail creates a relatively large solar disturbance torque that must be mitigated. For early mission design studies a flat plate model of the solar sail with a fixed center of pressure was adequate, but as mission concepts and the sail design matured, greater fidelity was required. Here we discuss the progress to a three-dimensional sail model that includes the effects of tension and thermal deformation that has been derived from a large structural Finite Element Model (FEM) developed by the Langley Research Center. We have found that the deformed sail membrane affects torque relatively much more than thrust. We have also found that other than uncertainty over the precise shape, the effect of small (approximately millimeter scale) wrinkles on the diffusivity of the sail is the leading remaining source of uncertainty. We demonstrate that millimeter-scale wrinkles can be modeled analytically as a change in the fraction of specular reflection. Finally we discuss the implications of these results for the NEA Scout mission.


    Access

    Access via TIB

    Check availability in my library


    Export, share and cite



    Title :

    Near Earth Asteroid Scout Thrust and Torque Model


    Contributors:

    Conference:

    International Symposium on Solar Sailing (ISSS 2017) ; 2017 ; Kyoto, Japan


    Publication date :

    2017-01-17


    Type of media :

    Conference paper


    Type of material :

    No indication


    Language :

    English




    Near Earth Asteroid Scout Thrust and Torque Model

    A. Heaton / N. Ahmad / K. Miller | NTIS | 2017


    Near Earth Asteroid Scout Solar Sail Thrust and Torque Model

    Heaton, Andrew / Miller, Kyle / Ahmad, Naeem | NTRS | 2017


    Near Earth Asteroid Scout Solar Sail Thrust and Torque Model

    A. Heaton / K. Miller / N. Ahmad | NTIS | 2017


    Near Earth Asteroid Scout Solar Sail Thrust and Torque Model

    Heaton, Andy / Ahmad, Naeem / Miller, Kyle | NTRS | 2017


    Near-Earth Asteroid Scout

    Walden, Amy / Clardy, Dennon / Johnson, Les | NTRS | 2015