Generalized Model for Solar Sails

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/76315/1/AIAA-9054-749.pd

Solar Sail Spaceflight Simulation

The Solar Sail Spaceflight Simulation Software (S5) toolkit provides solar-sail designers with an integrated environment for designing optimal solar-sail trajectories, and then studying the attitude dynamics/control, navigation, and trajectory control/correction of sails during realistic mission simulations. Unique features include a high-fidelity solar radiation pressure model suitable for arbitrarily-shaped solar sails, a solar-sail trajectory optimizer, capability to develop solar-sail navigation filter simulations, solar-sail attitude control models, and solar-sail high-fidelity force models

Potential effects of optical solar sail degredation on trajectory design

The optical properties of the thin metalized polymer films that are projected for solar sails are assumed to be affected by the erosive effects of the space environment. Their degradation behavior in the real space environment, however, is to a considerable degree indefinite, because initial ground test results are controversial and relevant inspace tests have not been made so far. The standard optical solar sail models that are currently used for trajectory design do not take optical degradation into account, hence its potential effects on trajectory design have not been investigated so far. Nevertheless, optical degradation is important for high-fidelity solar sail mission design, because it decreases both the magnitude of the solar radiation pressure force acting on the sail and also the sail control authority. Therefore, we propose a simple parametric optical solar sail degradation model that describes the variation of the sail film's optical coefficients with time, depending on the sail film's environmental history, i.e., the radiation dose. The primary intention of our model is not to describe the exact behavior of specific film-coating combinations in the real space environment, but to provide a more general parametric framework for describing the general optical degradation behavior of solar sails. Using our model, the effects of different optical degradation behaviors on trajectory design are investigated for various exemplary missions

In-situ Magnesium Diboride Superconducting Thin Films grown by Pulsed Laser Deposition

Superconducting thin films of MgB2 were deposited by Pulsed Laser Deposition on magnesium oxide and sapphire substrates. Samples grown at 450C in an argon buffer pressure of about 10-2 mbar by using a magnesium enriched target resulted to be superconducting with a transition temperature of about 25 K. Film deposited from a MgB2 sintered pellet target in ultra high vacuum conditions showed poor metallic or weak semiconducting behavior and they became superconducting only after an ex-situ annealing in Mg vapor atmosphere. Up to now, no difference in the superconducting properties of the films obtained by these two procedures has been evidenced.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure

Solar sails: Modeling, estimation, and trajectory control.

There has been great interest in developing solar sail technology and missions by several international space agencies in recent years. However, at present there is no consensus on how one can mathematically model forces and moments acting on a solar sail. Traditional analytical models and finite element methods are not feasible for integration into a precise navigation system. This dissertation takes a step toward resolving this issue by developing tools and concepts that can be integrated into a precise solar sail navigation system. These steps are the derivation of a generalized sail model, a linear estimation method for estimating and predicting forces and moments acting on a solar sail, and a new trajectory control methodology for tracking a nominal trajectory when the sail performance exceeds the nominal design performance. The main contributions of this dissertation follow. First, the generalized sail model (GSM) is defined to analytically describe the forces and moments acting on a solar sail of arbitrary shape. The GSM is derived by performing an integration, of all the differential forces and moments acting on the sail, over the sail surface. Next, the GSM is applied to several examples to illustrate the use of the GSM's analytic equations. These examples allow comparisons of forces and moments generated by different solar sails, the computation of force derivatives, and the application of the model to orbital mechanics problems. Since it is difficult to model the sail geometry based on ground measurements; errors in the sail model are expected once the sail is deployed in space. Due to this difficulty; a least-squares estimation method for the force and moment coefficients of the GSM is derived. For realistic implementation of a sail trajectory, the deployed sail must have an excess thrust capacity. We develop and implement a control methodology for flying a nominal mission profile with such an excess capacity. Control laws for maintaining a flat, ideal solar sail orbiting an equilibrium point of the circular restricted three-body problem and tracking neighboring halo orbits are, provided. The control laws are tested under several conditions including solar sail surface degradation.Ph.D.Aerospace engineeringApplied SciencesUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/126275/2/3238071.pd

Potential Solar Sail Degradation Effects on Trajectory and Attitude Control

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Outcomes in Newly Diagnosed Atrial Fibrillation and History of Acute Coronary Syndromes: Insights from GARFIELD-AF

BACKGROUND: Many patients with atrial fibrillation have concomitant coronary artery disease with or without acute coronary syndromes and are in need of additional antithrombotic therapy. There are few data on the long-term clinical outcome of atrial fibrillation patients with a history of acute coronary syndrome. This is a 2-year study of atrial fibrillation patients with or without a history of acute coronary syndromes