Smart Dust Relative Motion in Circular Heliocentric Orbits

A Smart Dust (SD) is an innovative and fascinating femto-spacecraft concept, with a characteristic side length of some centimeters or even some millimeters and whose external surface is coated with electrochromic material. In a recent paper the authors have studied the heliocentric dynamics of a SD with an electrochromic active control system. The propelled trajectory of such a femto-spacecraft has been described, using a linear systems approach, as a function of the different optical properties of the electrochromic material. The aim of this paper is to extend the results of th literature to the study of the relative motion of a SD and a spacecraft when the latter tracks a circular heliocentric orbit of given radius.