A comprehensive review of Electric Solar Wind Sail concept and its applications

M Bassetto, L Niccolai, AA Quarta, G Mengali - Progress in Aerospace …, 2022 - Elsevier
Abstract The Electric Solar Wind Sail (E-sail) is an innovative propellantless propulsion
system conceived by Pekka Janhunen in 2004 for use in interplanetary space. An E-sail …

Minimum-time low-thrust many-revolution geocentric trajectories with analytical costates initialization

D Wu, W Wang, F Jiang, J Li - Aerospace Science and Technology, 2021 - Elsevier
Traditionally, indirect methods for trajectory optimization start with the non-intuitive guesses
of the initial costates, but it is difficult to generate the initial guesses for the low-thrust many …

Generalized sail trajectory approximation with applications to MagSails

M Bassetto, AA Quarta, G Mengali - Aerospace Science and Technology, 2021 - Elsevier
This paper investigates approximate solutions to the two-dimensional equations of motion of
a generalized sail-based spacecraft. A generalized sail is a propellantless propulsion …

[HTML][HTML] Refined MagSail thrust model for preliminary mission design and trajectory optimization

M Bassetto, N Perakis, AA Quarta, G Mengali - Aerospace Science and …, 2023 - Elsevier
A magnetic sail is an advanced propellantless propulsion system concept for deep space
missions, proposed by Dana Andrews and Robert Zubrin about 30 years ago. The thrust is …

Solar sail-based V-infinity leveraging missions from elliptic orbit

AA Quarta, C Bianchi, L Niccolai, G Mengali - Aerospace Science and …, 2022 - Elsevier
The utilization of V∞ leveraging maneuvers in deep space missions is able to mitigate the
mission requirements on launch energy, as the spacecraft propulsive acceleration is used to …

Rapid optimization of continuous trajectory for multi-target exploration propelled by electric sails

M Huo, R **, J Qi, N Peng, L Yang, T Wang… - Aerospace Science and …, 2022 - Elsevier
As an innovative spacecraft propellantless propulsion technology, the electric sail can
generate electric fields that interact with the solar wind, generating continuous propulsive …

Rapid cooperative optimization of continuous trajectory for electric sails in multiple formation reconstruction scenarios

R **, M Huo, Y Xu, C Zhao, L Yang, N Qi - Aerospace Science and …, 2023 - Elsevier
In satellite formation missions, conventional low-thrust spacecraft need to continuously
consume fuel to maintain a stable formation configuration, which limits the mission period …

Adaptive fault-tolerant control for spacecraft formation under external disturbances with guaranteed performance

Y Wu, W Wang, H Zhu, S Wu, CJ Damaren - Advances in Space Research, 2023 - Elsevier
This paper investigates an adaptive fault-tolerant control problem for spacecraft formation
flying (SFF) with actuator faults, external disturbances, and unknown inertial uncertainties …

Improved Monte Carlo Tree Search-based approach to low-thrust multiple gravity-assist trajectory design

Z Fan, M Huo, AA Quarta, G Mengali, N Qi - Aerospace Science and …, 2022 - Elsevier
In the preliminary design of low-thrust trajectories with multiple gravity-assist phases, the
selection of the celestial bodies to be considered and the sequence of optimal maneuvers …

General passive stability criteria for a Sun-pointing attitude using the metasurface sail

P Zhang, S Firuzi, C Yuan, X Gong, S Gong - Aerospace Science and …, 2022 - Elsevier
Traveling to outer space has long fascinated humanity, but the astronomical distances
restrain us within our solar system. Laser-driven spacecraft is a promising candidate for …