Construction of geocentric boost trajectories for a spacecraft with a solar sail
Abstract
Trajectories are constructed for accelerating a solar sail spacecraft from low geocentric orbits beyond the gravitational field of the earth. In particular, attention is given to boost trajectories that include a perturbation maneuver near the moon. It is shown that the perturbation maneuver makes it possible to significantly reduce the time required for the spacecraft to escape the pull of the gravitational field of the earth as compared with a locally optimal guidance law that does not involve a lunar flyby.
- Publication:
-
Kosmicheskie Issledovaniia
- Pub Date:
- June 1993
- Bibcode:
- 1993KosIs..31...74S
- Keywords:
-
- Earth Gravitation;
- Satellite Perturbation;
- Solar Sails;
- Spacecraft Control;
- Spacecraft Trajectories;
- Geocentric Coordinates;
- Gravitational Fields;
- Astrodynamics