ABSTRACT
The Fourth International Symposium on Solar Sailing 2017
17th - 20th January, 2017, Kyoto, JAPAN
Title of Paper
Orbital dynamics of an oscillating sail in the Earth-Moon system
Corresponding Author
Name
Jeannette Heiligers
Title
Dr.
Affiliation
Delft University of Technology & University of Colorado Boulder
Co-Authors
Name
Matteo Ceriotti
Title
Dr.
Affiliation
University of Glasgow
Abstract
The potential of solar sailing in the Sun-Earth system has been extensively investigated through a range of
high-energy mission concepts such as missions over the poles of the Sun for heliophysics [1], hovering
along the Sun-Earth line for space weather forecasting [2], and parking the sail above the Earth’s orbit for
high-latitude navigation and communication [3]. Instead, the potential of solar sailing in the Earth-Moon
system has been investigated to a much lesser extent, while holding great promise for observation
capabilities due to the closer proximity to the Earth and Moon.
Previous work has established some of these capabilities by demonstrating the existence of families of solar
sail periodic orbits in the Earth-Moon circular restricted three-body system, mainly around the co-linear
Lagrange points [4]. This paper considers similar capabilities by exploiting the concept of an oscillating
sail [5], which consists of using a triangular sail that oscillates around the Sun-line when released at an
initially deflected angle. This oscillating motion is forced by the solar radiation pressure through a centreof-mass/centre-of-pressure shift. The work in [5] has demonstrated that, by synchronizing the sail attitude
with the orbital period, orbit raising around the Earth can be achieved.
Combining the novel concept of the oscillating solar sail with the dynamics in the Earth-Moon system
results in entirely new families of solar sail periodic orbits. These orbits are obtained through a differential
correction scheme in combination with a continuation approach to give rise to families of periodic orbits
that are parameterised by the sail performance. A selection of the results is presented in Figure 1, which
shows families of Lyapunov-type orbits as well as Earth-centred orbits that are obtained when the sail’s
oscillating period, the orbital period and the period of the Sun around the Earth-Moon system all coincide.
More orbit families, including those for different oscillation periods will be presented in the final paper.
a)
b)
Figure 1 Examples of families of oscillating solar sail periodic orbits in the Earth-Moon system for increasing
characteristic acceleration, ac. a) Lyapunov-type orbits. b) Earth-centered orbits.
The potential of the orbits in Figure 1 is clear, especially of the ones in Figure 1b for high-latitude
observation of the Earth. A constellation of only two sailcraft in such orbits can provide near-continuous
observation of the entire Arctic circle, a capability that still holds when transferring the orbits to a higherfidelity model that accounts for the eccentricity of the Moon. Compared to families of orbits achievable
with traditional solar sails, the ones obtained with the oscillating sail often allow greater orbit displacements,
thereby improving observation capabilities, and show more favourable stability properties.
References
1.
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2.
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