Colloquium: Lorenz Alexander Vinzenz Veithen (Space Flight)

Solar-sailing is a promising propellant-free propulsion method leveraging the momentum of photons to generate a thrust force, making them attractive for long-term missions both in Earth-bound and interplanetary space. In Earth orbit, solar-sails have been envisioned for space debris removal missions aiming to de-orbit multiple defunct satellites. However, their large sail area makes them vulnerable to hypervelocity impacts with debris, potentially causing loss of attitude control. Therefore, this thesis presents a study of the effects of tumbling dynamics on a solar-sail orbit, and assesses the capability of a state-of-the-art vane-based attitude control system to stabilise the sailcraft, using a six degrees-of-freedom simulator of the sail dynamics. The research indicates that tumbling of the sail leads to an eccentricity growth which is independent of the rotational velocity magnitude and that the vane system is capable of detumbling an ACS3-like sail up to rates of 26 deg/s.

Supervisor: Dr. Jeannette Heiligers