A Smart Dust is a propellantless femtosatellite, with a characteristic side length of a few
millimeters and a high value of its area-to-mass ratio. It exploits the solar radiation pressure …

Propellantless propulsion systems allow innovative mission scenarios to be envisaged,
including the generation and the stabilization of artificial equilibrium points in the circular …

The Near Earth Asteroid (NEA) Scout is a solar sail mission whose objective is to scout at
least one Near Earth Asteroid in preparation for manned missions to asteroids. NEA Scout …

A solar sail generates thrust without consuming any propellant, so it constitutes a promising
option for mission scenarios requiring a continuous propulsive acceleration, such as the …

The propellantless thrust of solar sails makes them capable of entirely new classes of
missions compared to conventional or electric engines. Initiated in 2010, the Planetary …

This paper explores the capability of solar sails to transfer a probe from the displaced Sun-
Earth L 1 and L 2 libration points to the region of practical stability (RPS) around the …

This paper analyzes the problem of finding the optimal steering law for a flat solar sail whose
propulsive acceleration is described by an optical force model. In particular, the problem …

This paper deals with the optimization of the transfer trajectory of a solar sail-based
spacecraft between circular and coplanar heliocentric orbits. The problem is addressed …

This paper studies deorbiting using an analogue to the quasi-rhombic-pyramid concept for
planar motion. The focus is on maintaining a stable (meaning oscillatory) attitude close to …

This paper presents a modular dynamic modeling approach to simulate a solar sail
embedded with actuated cables within its flexible structure. The cables are routed along the …