Solar-sail attitude control design for a sail flight validation mission

This paper presents the solar-sail attitude control system design for a solar-sail flight validation mission proposed in a dawn-dusk sun.-synchronous orbit. The proposed solar-sail attitude control system architecture consists of a propellantless primary attitude control system and a microthruster-based secondary attitude control system. The primary attitude control system employs two ballast masses running along mast lanyards for pitch/yaw trim control and roll stabilizer bars at the mast tips for roll control. The secondary attitude control system uses lightweight pulsed plasma thruster modules mounted at the mast tips. Such a microthruster-based secondary attitude control system can be employed for attitude recovery maneuvers from various off-nominal conditions, including tumbling, that cannot be handled by the propellantless primary attitude control system. The overall simplicity, effectiveness, and robustness of the proposed solar-sail attitude control system architecture are demonstrated for a sail flight validation mission employing a 40-m, 150-kg sailcraft in a 1600-km dawn-dusk sun-synchronous orbit. The proposed solar-sail attitude control system will be applicable with minimal modifications to a wide range of future solar-sailing missions with varying requirements and mission complexity.