Solar sail halo orbits at the Sun–Earth artificial L₁ point

Baoyin, H. and McInnes, C. (2006) Solar sail halo orbits at the Sun–Earth artificial L₁ point. Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronomy, 94(2), pp. 155-171. (doi: 10.1007/s10569-005-4626-3)

Abstract

Halo orbits for solar sails at artificial Sun–Earth L₁ points are investigated by a third order approximate solution. Two families of halo orbits are explored as defined by the sail attitude. Case I: the sail normal is directed along the Sun-sail line. Case II: the sail normal is directed along the Sun–Earth line. In both cases the minimum amplitude of a halo orbit increases as the lightness number of the solar sail increases. The effect of the z-direction amplitude on x- or y-direction amplitude is also investigated and the results show that the effect is relatively small. In case I, the orbit period increases as the sail lightness number increases, while in case II, as the lightness number increases, the orbit period increases first and then decreases after the lightness number exceeds ~0.01.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: McInnes, Professor Colin
• Authors: Baoyin, H., and McInnes, C.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Engineering > Systems Power and Energy
• Journal Name: Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronomy
• Publisher: Springer Verlag
• ISSN: 0923-2958
• ISSN (Online): 1572-9478