Effects of attitude constraints on solar sail optimal interplanetary trajectories

The aim of this paper is to evaluate the effect of a maximum admissible value of the sail cone angle on the transfer performance of a solar sail-based spacecraft in an interplanetary mission scenario. The proposed approach models the possible constraint on the maximum Sun angle of the solar panels, when thin film solar cells are attached to the flat solar sail exposed area. In particular, transfers towards Mars and Venus are investigated in a simplified circle-to-circle, two-dimensional mission scenario. This study is carried out by analyzing the transfer problem in a systematic way, by considering both the sail characteristic acceleration and the Sun angle of the solar panels as the independent parameters that define the mission performance in terms of flight time.