Gyro-Control of a Solar Sailing Satellite

Recent successes in the deployment of sails in space have reduced the risk associated with solar sailing missions. The attitude control requirements for a solar sailing mission is low with only slow attitude maneuvers needed to maintain a stable attitude and produce a required solar thrust. Future s...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inarXiv.org
Main Authors Jordaan, Hendrik Willem, Willem Herman Steyn
Format Paper
LanguageEnglish
Published Ithaca Cornell University Library, arXiv.org 29.10.2019
Subjects
Attitude control
Maneuvers
Missions
Multinational space ventures
Solar sails
Spacecraft
Steering
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Summary:Recent successes in the deployment of sails in space have reduced the risk associated with solar sailing missions. The attitude control requirements for a solar sailing mission is low with only slow attitude maneuvers needed to maintain a stable attitude and produce a required solar thrust. Future science missions will require large attitude maneuvers with a fully deployed sail. This article investigates the current options for attitude control on solar sails and proposes a gyro-controlled solar sailing. This concept uses a spinning solar sail to construct a control moment gyroscope capable to produce large torques. Steering laws for performing attitude maneuvers and simulation results are presented which demonstrates the capabilities of such a solution.
ISSN:2331-8422