Assessing the Collision-Avoidance Capability of Solar Sails in Low Earth Orbit
V.R. Gottumukkala (TU Delft - Aerospace Engineering)
Jeannette Heiligers – Mentor (TU Delft - Astrodynamics & Space Missions)
S. Gehly – Mentor (TU Delft - Astrodynamics & Space Missions)
Ernst Schrama – Graduation committee member (TU Delft - Astrodynamics & Space Missions)
S. Speretta – Graduation committee member (TU Delft - Space Systems Egineering)
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Abstract
The rapid growth in the population of objects orbiting the Earth has led to increased congestion and collision risk. Solar-sail missions have been proposed as a means of debris removal by harnessing the perpetual force from sunlight to perform maneuvers; however, their capability to avoid collisions under the combined effects of solar radiation pressure and atmospheric drag remains to be investigated.
To address this gap, a framework was developed to simulate conjunctions between a sail and debris using representative uncertainties to compute collision risk. Analytical and numerical locally-optimal control laws were applied to steer the sail away from conjunctions and minimize maneuver durations while safely reducing the collision risk. The results revealed patterns in the applicability of specific control laws, with maneuver durations ranging from minutes to hours and showing strong dependence on orbital, physical, and conjunction parameters.