Electric Sail displaced orbit control with solar wind uncertainties

The Electric Solar Wind Sail (E-sail) is a propellantless propulsion system concept that generates thrust by exchanging momentum with the ions in the solar wind. An E-sail preliminary mission analysis is usually conducted by selecting average values for the solar wind properties and keeping them constant throughout the numerical simulations. However, in-situ measurements highlight that this assumption is not realistic, since the solar wind undergoes significant fluctuations, with the same order of magnitude as the mean value. The aim of this work is investigate the impact of environmental uncertainties on the capability of a E-sail-based spacecraft to track a circular, heliocentric, displaced non-Keplerian orbit, that is, a circular trajectory whose orbital plane does not contain the Sun’s center-of-mass. Also, the performance of a control law that adjusts the E-sail grid voltage to counteract the solar wind fluctuations is analyzed in detail.