Exploitation of STRP and J2 perturbations for deorbitation of spacecraft through attitude control

• Published in: Acta astronautica Vol. 203; pp. 551 - 567
• Main Authors: Massé, Catherine, Sharf, Inna, Deleflie, Florent
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.02.2023
• Subjects: Attitude; Deorbitation; Resonance; Semi-major axis; SRP; Thermal radiation; SRP; Deorbitation; Resonance; Thermal radiation; Attitude; Semi-major axis
• ISSN: 0094-5765; 1879-2030
• DOI: 10.1016/j.actaastro.2022.12.008

In this work, we propose a solution to deorbit a plate-like spacecraft by exploiting a Solar and Thermal Radiation Pressure (STRP) resonance, more specifically the STRP-J2-ϕ resonance in semi-major axis, by using attitude control to enforce the resonance at all time. The feasibility of the strategy is verified in a realistic environment modelled by the coupled orbit-attitude propagator D-SPOSE where the full dynamics is propagated by including STRP, gravitational and atmospheric perturbing accelerations and torques. The strategy is compared to three alternate deorbitation strategies; one is our previous solution based on eccentricity resonance and the other two solutions are from prior literature and involve a bang–bang approach to either lower the orbit’s semi-major axis or to increase its eccentricity. Finally, a power/energy analysis is performed to assess the feasibility of the resonance and bang–bang semi-major axis deorbitation schemes. •A resonance in semi-major axis can be generated through appropriate attitude control.•Deorbitation using STRP via a decrease is often more efficient than via e increase.•a resonance for deorbitation is suitable for spacecraft with large A/m.•Power required to enforce proper attitude motion for a resonance is negligible.