Drag sail controlled re-entry
- Paper number
IAC-12,C1,2,x16336
- Author
Mr. Josep Virgili Llop, Cranfield University, United Kingdom
- Year
2012
- Abstract
Drag sails deorbiting devices are an interesting option for deorbit defunct spacecraft. They are passive devices that can be accommodated as an independent system to the spacecraft. Thus, causing nearly no impact and enabling them to be deployed after the true end-of-life is reached. Although presenting some key competitive advantages against traditional deorbiting systems (like direct deorbit burns) they also have some disadvantages. Among them there is the impossibility to control the re-entry point. This is mainly due to the long deorbit time and the variability associated with the atmosphere. Given the thread that multi-ton spacecraft uncontrolled re-entry pose it would be desirable that drag sails could have the capability to make spacecraft re-enter over a pre-designated area. In this paper an active sail design is presented that could make re-enter the spacecraft over a pre- designated zone by modulating its drag during the final orbits. The drag modulation is achieved by changing the incidence angle of a pyramidal drag sail. A whole GNC system is defined to meet this requirement and finally, a real simulation of a typical deorbit is carried out to assess the actual capabilities of the such a system.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
(absent)