Electric Sail Option for Cometary Rendezvous

This paper discusses a preliminary study of the transfer trajectory toward the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko for a spacecraft whose primary propulsion system is an Electric Solar Wind Sail. The use of a propellantless propulsion system with a continuous thrust is theoretically able to simplify the transfer trajectory by avoiding the need of intermediate flyby maneuvers. The problem is addressed in a parametric way, by looking for the potential optimal launch windows as a function of the thruster performance. The study is completed by a mass breakdown analysis, for some mission scenarios, based on the actual payload mass of the spacecraft Rosetta.