Transfer orbits to L-4 with a solar sail in the Earth-Sun system

摘要

Solar sails are enablers for long interplanetary transfers, but also offer many advantages in Libration Point Orbits missions. The extra effect of the Solar Radiation Pressure allows a space vehicle, by changing the sail orientation, to be artificially displaced from the classical Lagrangian equilibrium points, L-1,..., L-5, as well perturbed from the Lyapunov, Halo and Lissajous orbits that appear around them. Most of these equilibrium points are linearly unstable and have stable and unstable invariant manifolds associated with them. In this paper we explore the possibilities that these invariant manifolds offer to navigate in a natural way around a circular, restricted, three-body system. We take the Earth-Sun Restricted Three Body Problem as a model and, for different fixed sail orientations, we compute the stable and unstable manifolds associated with the equilibrium points of the system. We find natural trajectories that allow the vehicle to move around the family of equilibria in a controlled way and to go from a region close to L-1 or L-2 to a region close to L-4.