SOLAR SAIL DYNAMICS: BIFURCATIONS OF ARTIFICIAL EQUILIBRIUM POINTS AND POSSIBLE APPLICATIONS

Providing the necessary energy for space missions has been challenging for several years. In this context, the solar radiation pressure has been presented as an alternative propulsion form that does not rely on on-board fuel. Thus, solar sails open up a wide range of new possibilities for spatial trajectories and by exploiting an unlimited source of energy enable long-term missions and exploration of the Solar System. The guidance and performance of the vehicles that use this form of propulsion depend on the attitude of the sail relative to the Sun. This work investigates the dynamics of solar sails in the Sun-Earth system in the context of the Spatial Circular Restricted Three-Body Problem (R3BP) with the inclusion of the solar radiation pressure. As a first step, we exploit the biparametric dependence of the artificial equilibrium points as a function of the angles that define the attitude of the solar sail for a set of values of the sail lightness number. The linear stability analysis is performed providing the new types of equilibrium and the observed bifurcations. In a second step, we discuss in which range of the parameters of the problem, dynamical novelties are expected and may be explored. In a third step, the dynamical behavior of trajectories are exploited by numerical integration in order to elucidate the practical effects of these stability changes in relation to the classical R3BP. Finally, we propose some possible exploitation of these dynamical properties in the context of space mission design in the Solar System.