Optimal Interplanetary Trajectories for Solar Sail

ABSTRACT Most interplanetary spacecraft have used finite burns to escape Earth’s orbit and be captured by their destination’s gravity. Solar sail is an attractive technology to potentially lessen propellent expenditure. Optimal control of the sail coning angle to the Sun can both reduce transit time and the mission’s propulsive velocity change. This research sought to determine the savings in hyperbolic excess velocity at departure and arrival for a baseline spacecraft and steering angle. Keywords: Interplanetary, Solar Sail, Hyperbolic Excess Velocity, Lagrangian Variation of Parameters (VOP)