Electric Solar Wind Sail Kinetic Energy Impactor for Asteroid Deflection Missions
Electric Solar Wind Sail Kinetic Energy Impactor for Asteroid Deflection Missions
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DOI：
10.1007/s40295-015-0081-x
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发表时间：
2016-01
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
Kouhei Yamaguchi;H. Yamakawa
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文献类型：
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作者：
Kouhei Yamaguchi;H. Yamakawa
电动太阳风帆利用自然太阳风流与许多细长的带电系绳相互作用，产生低但持续的推力。它允许航天器在不消耗任何反应质量的情况下产生推力。本文的目的是研究使用具有这种推进系统的航天器使具有高相对速度的小行星偏离地球碰撞轨迹。为此，我们建立了电太阳风帆的仿真模型。通过对各缆索上的推力矢量求和，建立了推力与船帆姿态关系的动力学模型。考虑了固定风帆姿态和改变系绳电压的轨道机动。对假想的小行星的偏转进行了详细的研究，这些小行星被假定在地球撞击前15年被识别出来。假设航天器的特征加速度为0.5 mm/s2，弹丸质量为1,000 kg，我们证明了100万吨小行星的轨迹可以改变到足以避免与地球相撞的程度。最后，通过与平面光子太阳帆的比较，评估了在小行星偏转任务中使用这种推进方法的有效性。
An electric solar wind sail uses the natural solar wind stream to produce low but continuous thrust by interacting with a number of long thin charged tethers. It allows a spacecraft to generate a thrust without consuming any reaction mass. The aim of this paper is to investigate the use of a spacecraft with such a propulsion system to deflect an asteroid with a high relative velocity away from an Earth collision trajectory. To this end, we formulate a simulation model for the electric solar wind sail. By summing thrust vectors exerted on each tether, a dynamic model which gives the relation between the thrust and sail attitude is proposed. Orbital maneuvering by fixing the sail’s attitude and changing tether voltage is considered. A detailed study of the deflection of fictional asteroids, which are assumed to be identified 15 years before Earth impact, is also presented. Assuming a spacecraft characteristic acceleration of 0.5 mm/s2, and a projectile mass of 1,000 kg, we show that the trajectory of asteroids with one million tons can be changed enough to avoid a collision with the Earth. Finally, the effectiveness of using this method of propulsion in an asteroid deflection mission is evaluated in comparison with using flat photonic solar sails.