Influence of attitude control on transfer mission for a flexible solar sail

●The reduced dynamic model for a flexible solar sail with foreshortening deformation.●The coupling effect of orbit, attitude and vibration in the transfer mission.●PD control with limited control torque.●The significant influence of attitude changing.●The significant influence of solar pressure disturbance torque.

A solar-photon sail space vehicle, or a sailcraft, is a new type of vehicle apt also for deep-space exploration. A sailcraft is pushed by the pressure of the solar irradiance on the sail. The sailcraft has large and highly flexible structure, and its motion involves a coupling of the orbit, the attitude and structural vibration. Based on the coupling effect of the orbit and the attitude, the theory of time-optimal control is used to design the transfer trajectory from an earth-centric orbit to a heliocentric polar orbit. This paper establishes the reduced dynamic model for a flexible solar sail with foreshortening deformation and coupling of its attitude and vibration. In the process of attitude control, the sailcraft will generate orbital deviations from the designed orbit as well as structural vibration. This is especially true when the sailcraft makes large-angle maneuvers: larger orbital deviations and structural vibrations are generated. When initial deviations and solar pressure disturbance torques are considered, the process of attitude control leads to greater accumulated error in the transfer trajectory, which demonstrates that the process of attitude control is important to the sailcraft mission.