A new concept of a solar power satellite system configured by formation flying (Formation-Flying Solar Power Satellite: FF-SPS) is presented. The solar power satellite system consists of two sunlight reflectors and an Earth-pointing segment. The Earth-pointing segment is on a common GEO, and the reflectors are placed on the north and south using solar pressure to raise their orbit planes. In this way, three separate structures comprise one solar power satellite system without any large rotation mechanisms. Two candidate configurations of FF-SPS are presented, and their feasibility are discussed focusing on the orbital and attitude mechanics of the reflector. One and the other are to place the reflector perpendicularly above and below the sub-reflector and the center of mass of the Earth-pointing segment, respectively. A larger amount of the control propellant is required for orbital control in the former configuration, and for the attitude control in the latter configuration. Through some analyses, it is shown that the required propellant for the control of the latter concept is about half of the former concept, which is about only 20% larger than that for previous concepts. It is considered that the latter concept minimized the demand for the orbital control by taking advantage of the characteristics of FF-SPS; it is possible to achieve an arbitrary attitude control. The structural feasibility is also discussed through FEM analyses. It is revealed that it is possible to assemble the lightweight reflector structure with sufficient stiffness using deployable structures based on current technologies. Although FF-SPS requires more control propellant than previous concepts, its feasibility is technologically equivalent to previous ones. Moreover, FF-SPS is the first concept that has both Earth-pointing and Sun-pointing segments without any single point of failure.


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    Title :

    Solar power satellite system configured by formation flying


    Contributors:


    Publication date :

    2004


    Size :

    8 Seiten, 9 Quellen



    Type of media :

    Conference paper


    Type of material :

    Print


    Language :

    English








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