On orbit control utilizing solar sails around asteroids

Abstract

The interest of exploring asteroids has been growing over these years due to their primordial origins and possible economic benefits. The gravities of the asteroids are mostly very small and irregular, so it is necessary to study the orbits around them with special treatment. In this paper, two kinds of nominal orbits for probes are firstly proposed. One kind is around the collinear libration points of the restricted three-body problem formed with the Sun, the asteroid and the probe. The other kind is the formation flying orbits around the asteroid. Due to the inevitable existence of errors in practice, station keeping of these two kinds of nominal orbits is necessary. Solar sail propulsion is used in this paper. Two control techniques including varying the solar sail area and varying the solar sail pitch and yaw angles are considered. The linear optimal feedback control law is used. Numerical simulations are made to both kinds of nominal orbits. The results show that the controlled orbits converge to the vicinity of the nominal orbits rapidly. The technique of varying the solar sail pitch and yaw angles is better than varying the solar sail area. © 2013 Tsinghua University Press, and Springer-Verlag.