Research Information System
25th American-Astronautical-Society (AAS)/American-Institute-of-Aeronautics-and-Astronautics (AIAA) Space Flight Mechanics Meeting, Virginia, United States Of America, 11 - 15 January 2015, vol.155, pp.3529-3546
Solar sailing where the radiation pressure from Sun is utilized to propel the spacecraft is examined in the context of orbital maneuvers. In this vein a locally optimal steering law to progressively change the selected orbital elements, without considering others, of an Earth centered Keplerian orbit of a cubesat satellite with solar sail is addressed. The proper attitude maneuver mechanization is proposed to harvest highest solar radiation force in the desired direction for such Earth orbiting satellites. The satellite attitude control is realized using quaternion error feedback control. The effectiveness of the approach to progressively changing the orbital parameters is demonstrated.