Novel orbit-attitude combination mode for solar power satellites to reduce mass and fuel

Solar power satellite receives great attention because it can release the energy crisis and environmental problems in the future. However, the launch and maintenance costs are tremendous due to the large system mass and large fuel consumption to counteract space perturbations. To reduce mass and fuel, a novel quasi-Sun-pointing attitude in Sun-frozen orbit is proposed. The Sun-frozen orbit has a nonzero eccentricity vector that always points towards the Sun. The quasi-Sun-pointing attitude is a periodic solution of the Sun-pointing attitude angle. Although about 3 % electricity must be given up because of the variation of Sun-pointing attitude angle, little control action is required to deal with the solar radiation pressure and gravity-gradient torque. The algorithm to obtain initial conditions is proposed. The influences of system parameters and structural flexibilities are studied. Simulation results reveal that the quasi-Sun-pointing attitude in Sunfrozen orbit dramatically reduce fuel consumption, the dry mass, and complexity of the control system. In addition, structural vibration is hardly induced by the gravity-gradient torque. Thus, the bending stiffness as well as the mass of the supporting structure can be reduced. (c) 2021 Chinese Society of Aeronautics and Astronautics. Production and hosting by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Automated summary

Solar power satellites are receiving great attention for their potential to address future energy crises and environmental problems. This study proposes a novel quasi-Sun-pointing attitude in a Sun-frozen orbit to reduce mass and fuel consumption. The influences of system parameters and structural flexibilities are investigated, and simulation results demonstrate that the quasi-Sun-pointing attitude can significantly reduce fuel consumption, dry mass, and control system complexity.