Abstract: The controlled motion of a spacecraft with a solar sail in interplanetary space near the collinear libration points L1 and L2 of the Sun–Earth system is investigated. The equations of the circular restricted three-body problem and their modifications are used to describe the orbital motion. We present a technique for constructing the orbital motion control laws and provide an estimate of the controllability region when solving the problem of stabilization or long-term spacecraft keeping in the vicinity ofL1 and L2 . This technique is based on the solution of the control problem for a linearized model of the equations of orbital motion and the transfer of results to the nonlinear case. Such a technique for the construction of control laws extends the possibilities both in solving the problems of motion stabilization and in solving the problems of maneuvering in the vicinity of a collinear libration point. We estimate the controllability region for a spacecraft with a solar sail and present the trajectories of possible spacecraft motion that are provided by the solar sail orientation when flying from the vicinity of a collinear libration point. It is in these regions of space that the light pressure force can have a significant efficiency due to the relatively small magnitude of the gravitational force. As an example, we consider a model of a spacecraft with a solar sail whose sail area-to-mass ratio corresponds to the spacecraft from the implemented IKAROS project and is less than that of the CubeSat spacecraft from the implemented LightSail-2 project by an order of magnitude.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)710-719
Number of pages10
JournalAstronomy Letters
Volume47
Issue number10
DOIs
StatePublished - Oct 2021

    Research areas

  • controlled motion, invariant manifold, libration point, maneuvering, restricted three-body problem, solar sail

    Scopus subject areas

  • Astronomy and Astrophysics
  • Space and Planetary Science

ID: 93541100