Solar sail attitude control using shape variation of booms

Active attitude control of solar sails is required to control the direction of the force generated by Solar Radiation Pressure (SRP). It is desirable to control the attitude through propellantfree means. This paper proposes a new method for attitude control of solar sails: A boom consisting of smart structural material can be deformed by the piezoelectric actuator, and Solar Radiation Pressure torque will be generated due to shape variation of sail membrane caused by boom deformation. The method has the advantages of simple structure, small disturbance and small additional load, and is not limited by the size of the solar sail. The case of rendezvous with the Asteroid 2000 SG344 is used to verify the attitude control around the pitch and yaw axes.(c) 2021 Chinese Society of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Production and hosting by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Automated summary

This paper proposes a new method for attitude control of solar sails using a boom made of smart structural material that can be deformed by a piezoelectric actuator. The deformation of the boom causes shape variation of the sail membrane, generating Solar Radiation Pressure torque for attitude control. This method has the advantages of simple structure, small disturbance, small additional load, and is not limited by the size of the solar sail.