Optimal Control Laws for Axially Symmetric Solar Sails

摘要

A generic model of an axially symmetric solar sail has been investigated. The acceleration experienced by the sail is shown to de- pend on five scalar quantities and to belong to the plane containing the direction of the incoming radiation and the sail symmetry axis. The optimal control law for minimum-time interplanetary trajectories has been found using an indirect approach. The steering law is found to be independent of the clock angle and to extend the results for a flat sail to a three-dimensional axially symmetric geometry.