Affiliation:
1. Department of Civil and Industrial Engineering, University of Pisa, 56122 Pisa, Italy
Abstract
The goal of this paper is to analyze the optimal transfer towards the periodic comet 29P/Schwassmann–Wachmann 1 of a solar sail-based spacecraft. This periodic and active comet is an interesting and still unexplored small body that has been regarded as an object of the Centaurs group. In this work, a classical (heliocentric) orbit-to-orbit transfer is studied from an optimal viewpoint, by finding the spacecraft trajectories that minimize the flight time for a given value of the solar sail characteristic acceleration, that is, the typical performance parameter of a photonic sail. In particular, the optimal Earth–comet transfer is studied both in a typical three-dimensional mission scenario and with a simplified two-dimensional approach, whose aim is to rapidly obtain an accurate estimation of the minimum flight time with a reduced computation cost. The numerical simulations illustrate the mission performance, in terms of the characteristics of the rapid transfer trajectory, as a function of the typical propulsive parameter and the solar sail thrust model.
Subject
Fluid Flow and Transfer Processes,Computer Science Applications,Process Chemistry and Technology,General Engineering,Instrumentation,General Materials Science
Cited by
4 articles.
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