Scholarlink

<p>With an ever growing competition in space industry, it is important to develop technologies that allow lower budget space missions. Solar sails are a cheaper form of propulsion which have recently been employed in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), demonstrating their utility in propelling CubeSats. However, most solar sailing trajectory optimization studies are developed in unperturbed 2-body dynamics, with the use of indirect optimization methods. These methods make it harder to implement additional perturbations. In order to simulate conditions closer to the space environment, it is necessary to consider dynamics which are more complete. This study proposes the development of a rational agent to act as an attitude guidance system in a perturbed N-body problem. Additionally, its use is tested in a LEO, which is an environment subject to many perturbations. The agent is given the goal to raise the altitude of the spacecraft while considering attitude changes constraints, given the practical challenges of maneuvering a solar sail. Results show the agent is capable of raising the altitude when the sail is at an altitude over approximately <InlineEquation ID="IEq1"> <EquationSource Format="TEX">\(520\,\textrm{km}\)</EquationSource> </InlineEquation>. In some cases, it was possible to gain altitude with one attitude change per orbital revolution. Finally, the employment of a rational agent laid the foundations for a wider range of studies with more complete orbital dynamics.</p>

错误：搜索内容不能为空，请输入英文关键词
错误：关键词超出字数限制，请精简
高级检索

Solar sail trajectory design in LEO via rational agent

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年2月11日

查看全文
  • Lucas Meireles,
  • Othon Winter,
  • Antônio Prado

摘要

With an ever growing competition in space industry, it is important to develop technologies that allow lower budget space missions. Solar sails are a cheaper form of propulsion which have recently been employed in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), demonstrating their utility in propelling CubeSats. However, most solar sailing trajectory optimization studies are developed in unperturbed 2-body dynamics, with the use of indirect optimization methods. These methods make it harder to implement additional perturbations. In order to simulate conditions closer to the space environment, it is necessary to consider dynamics which are more complete. This study proposes the development of a rational agent to act as an attitude guidance system in a perturbed N-body problem. Additionally, its use is tested in a LEO, which is an environment subject to many perturbations. The agent is given the goal to raise the altitude of the spacecraft while considering attitude changes constraints, given the practical challenges of maneuvering a solar sail. Results show the agent is capable of raising the altitude when the sail is at an altitude over approximately \(520\,\textrm{km}\) . In some cases, it was possible to gain altitude with one attitude change per orbital revolution. Finally, the employment of a rational agent laid the foundations for a wider range of studies with more complete orbital dynamics.