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Aerospace
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Advances in CubeSat Sails and Tethers (2nd Edition)
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Advances in CubeSat Sails and Tethers (2nd Edition)

A special issue of Aerospace (ISSN 2226-4310). This special issue belongs to the section "Astronautics & Space Science".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 November 2024) | Viewed by 7135

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Pekka Janhunen

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Finnish Meteorological Institute, Erik Palménin aukio 1, 00560 Helsinki, Finland
Interests: space plasma physics; sustainable space; electric solar wind sail; plasma brake; propulsion; space settlements
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Andris Slavinskis

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Space Technology Department, UT Tartu Observatory, Observatooriumi 1, 61602 Tõravere, Tartu Maakond, Estonia
Interests: nanospacecraft; CubeSat; nanosatellite; interplanetary propulsion; electric solar wind sail; space debris; deorbiting; plasma brake; mission design; deep-space missions; spacecraft control; optical imaging; celestial navigation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The size and propulsion of spacecraft are major limiting factors in the design of space missions. Chemical and electric propulsion require the spacecraft size to be several orders of magnitude larger than CubeSats. The CubeSat standard in conjunction with the New Space movement has revolutionized the space industry and scientific exploration. CubeSats consist of one or multiple 10 × 10 × 10 cm units stacked together in order to achieve the desired mission objectives. With a typical CubeSat mass in the range of 1–10 kg, their propellant storage capabilities are extremely limited, if available at all.

Propellantless propulsion systems employ an external force to propel the spacecraft, instead of an on-board propellant. This force can be photon pressure and solar wind originating from the Sun, as well as the magnetic field originating from a planet’s core or atmospheric particles dragging the spacecraft to a lower altitude. We can employ physical lightsails to reflect photons and travel the solar system. A similar dragsail can be used in low Earth orbit (LEO) for the mitigation of orbital debris during deorbiting. Virtual electromagnetic sails can also be generated: the electric sail deflects solar wind particles using the Coulomb drag force to travel sunward and away from the star; electrodynamic tethers use Lorentz force to increase and lower a satellite’s altitude; and the plasma brake employs the Coulomb drag interaction with the ionosphere for deorbiting. We invite you to submit papers on topics covering CubeSat sails and tethers, and their fundamental aspects, simulations, designs, optimization, operations, applications in Earth orbit and deep space, and in-orbit results.

Dr. Pekka Janhunen
Dr. Andris Slavinskis
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Aerospace is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • propellantless CubeSat propulsion
  • lightsails (photon pressure propulsion) and dragsails (atmospheric drag)
  • electric solar wind sail and plasma brake (Coulomb drag propulsion)
  • electrodynamics tethers (Lorentz force propulsion)
  • earth orbit as well as interplanetary CubeSats
  • orbital debris
  • on-board orbit and attitude control

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Related Special Issue

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

16 pages, 2589 KiB  
Article
Three-Dimensional Rapid Orbit Transfer of Diffractive Sail with a Littrow Transmission Grating-Propelled Spacecraft
by Alessandro A. Quarta
Aerospace 2024, 11(11), 925; https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace11110925 - 8 Nov 2024
Viewed by 798
Abstract
A diffractive solar sail is an elegant concept for a propellantless spacecraft propulsion system that uses a large, thin, lightweight surface covered with a metamaterial film to convert solar radiation pressure into a net propulsive acceleration. The latter can be used to perform [...] Read more.
A diffractive solar sail is an elegant concept for a propellantless spacecraft propulsion system that uses a large, thin, lightweight surface covered with a metamaterial film to convert solar radiation pressure into a net propulsive acceleration. The latter can be used to perform a typical orbit transfer both in a heliocentric and in a planetocentric mission scenario. In this sense, the diffractive sail, proposed by Swartzlander a few years ago, can be considered a sort of evolution of the more conventional reflective solar sail, which generally uses a metallized film to reflect the incident photons, studied in the scientific literature starting from the pioneering works of Tsander and Tsiolkovsky in the first decades of the last century. In the context of a diffractive sail, the use of a metamaterial film with a Littrow transmission grating allows for the propulsive acceleration magnitude to be reduced to zero (and then, the spacecraft to be inserted in a coasting arc during the transfer) without resorting to a sail attitude that is almost edgewise to the Sun, as in the case of a classical reflective solar sail. The aim of this work is to study the optimal (i.e., the rapid) transfer performance of a spacecraft propelled by a diffractive sail with a Littrow transmission grating (DSLT) in a three-dimensional heliocentric mission scenario, in which the space vehicle transfers between two assigned Keplerian orbits. Accordingly, this paper extends and generalizes the results recently obtained by the author in the context of a simplified, two-dimensional, heliocentric mission scenario. In particular, this work illustrates an analytical model of the thrust vector that can be used to study the performance of a DSLT-based spacecraft in a three-dimensional optimization context. The simplified thrust model is employed to simulate the rapid transfer in a set of heliocentric mission scenarios as a typical interplanetary transfer toward a terrestrial planet and a rendezvous with a periodic comet. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in CubeSat Sails and Tethers (2nd Edition))
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19 pages, 2692 KiB  
Article
Impact of Pitch Angle Limitation on E-Sail Interplanetary Transfers
by Alessandro A. Quarta
Aerospace 2024, 11(9), 729; https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace11090729 - 6 Sep 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 802
Abstract
The Electric Solar Wind Sail (E-sail) deflects charged particles from the solar wind through an artificial electric field to generate thrust in interplanetary space. The structure of a spacecraft equipped with a typical E-sail essentially consists in a number of long conducting tethers [...] Read more.
The Electric Solar Wind Sail (E-sail) deflects charged particles from the solar wind through an artificial electric field to generate thrust in interplanetary space. The structure of a spacecraft equipped with a typical E-sail essentially consists in a number of long conducting tethers deployed from a main central body, which contains the classical spacecraft subsystems. During flight, the reference plane that formally contains the conducting tethers, i.e., the sail nominal plane, is inclined with respect to the direction of propagation of the solar wind (approximately coinciding with the Sun–spacecraft direction in a preliminary trajectory analysis) in such a way as to vary both the direction and the module of the thrust vector provided by the propellantless propulsion system. The generation of a sail pitch angle different from zero (i.e., a non-zero angle between the Sun–spacecraft line and the direction perpendicular to the sail nominal plane) allows a transverse component of the thrust vector to be obtained. From the perspective of attitude control system design, a small value of the sail pitch angle could improve the effectiveness of the E-sail attitude maneuver at the expense, however, of a worsening of the orbital transfer performance. The aim of this paper is to investigate the effects of a constraint on the maximum value of the sail pitch angle, on the performance of a spacecraft equipped with an E-sail propulsion system in a typical interplanetary mission scenario. During flight, the E-sail propulsion system is considered to be always on so that the entire transfer can be considered a single propelled arc. A heliocentric orbit-to-orbit transfer without ephemeris constraints is analyzed, while the performance analysis is conducted in a parametric form as a function of both the maximum admissible sail pitch angle and the propulsion system’s characteristic acceleration value. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in CubeSat Sails and Tethers (2nd Edition))
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19 pages, 1217 KiB  
Article
Optimal Guidance for Heliocentric Orbit Cranking with E-Sail-Propelled Spacecraft
by Alessandro A. Quarta
Aerospace 2024, 11(6), 490; https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace11060490 - 19 Jun 2024
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1253
Abstract
In astrodynamics, orbit cranking is usually referred to as an interplanetary transfer strategy that exploits multiple gravity-assist maneuvers to change both the inclination and eccentricity of the spacecraft osculating orbit without changing the specific mechanical energy, that is, the semimajor axis. In the [...] Read more.
In astrodynamics, orbit cranking is usually referred to as an interplanetary transfer strategy that exploits multiple gravity-assist maneuvers to change both the inclination and eccentricity of the spacecraft osculating orbit without changing the specific mechanical energy, that is, the semimajor axis. In the context of a solar sail-based mission, however, the concept of orbit cranking is typically referred to as a suitable guidance law that is able to (optimally) change the orbital inclination of a circular orbit of an assigned radius in a general heliocentric three-dimensional scenario. In fact, varying the orbital inclination is a challenging maneuver from the point of view of the velocity change, so orbit cranking is an interesting mission application for a propellantless propulsion system. The aim of this paper is to analyze the performance of a spacecraft equipped with an Electric Solar Wind Sail in a cranking maneuver of a heliocentric circular orbit. The maneuver performance is calculated in an optimal framework considering spacecraft dynamics described by modified equinoctial orbital elements. In this context, the paper presents an analytical version of the three-dimensional optimal guidance laws obtained by using the classical Pontryagin’s maximum principle. The set of (analytical) optimal control laws is a new contribution to the Electric Solar Wind Sail-related literature. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in CubeSat Sails and Tethers (2nd Edition))
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29 pages, 36313 KiB  
Article
Interplanetary Student Nanospacecraft: Development of the LEO Demonstrator ESTCube-2
by Janis Dalbins, Kristo Allaje, Hendrik Ehrpais, Iaroslav Iakubivskyi, Erik Ilbis, Pekka Janhunen, Joosep Kivastik, Maido Merisalu, Mart Noorma, Mihkel Pajusalu, Indrek Sünter, Antti Tamm, Hans Teras, Petri Toivanen, Boris Segret and Andris Slavinskis
Aerospace 2023, 10(6), 503; https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace10060503 - 26 May 2023
Cited by 13 | Viewed by 3734
Abstract
Nanosatellites have established their importance in low-Earth orbit (LEO), and it is common for student teams to build them for educational and technology demonstration purposes. The next challenge is the technology maturity for deep-space missions. The LEO serves as a relevant environment for [...] Read more.
Nanosatellites have established their importance in low-Earth orbit (LEO), and it is common for student teams to build them for educational and technology demonstration purposes. The next challenge is the technology maturity for deep-space missions. The LEO serves as a relevant environment for maturing the spacecraft design. Here we present the ESTCube-2 mission, which will be launched onboard VEGA-C VV23. The satellite was developed as a technology demonstrator for the future deep-space mission by the Estonian Student Satellite Program. The ultimate vision of the program is to use the electric solar wind sail (E-sail) technology in an interplanetary environment to traverse the solar system using lightweight propulsion means. Additional experiments were added to demonstrate all necessary technologies to use the E-sail payload onboard ESTCube-3, the next nanospacecraft targeting the lunar orbit. The E-sail demonstration requires a high-angular velocity spin-up to deploy a tether, resulting in a need for a custom satellite bus. In addition, the satellite includes deep-space prototypes: deployable structures; compact avionics stack electronics (including side panels); star tracker; reaction wheels; and cold–gas propulsion. During the development, two additional payloads were added to the design of ESTCube-2, one for Earth observation of the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index and the other for corrosion testing in the space of thin-film materials. The ESTCube-2 satellite has been finished and tested in time for delivery to the launcher. Eventually, the project proved highly complex, making the team lower its ambitions and optimize the development of electronics, software, and mechanical structure. The ESTCube-2 team dealt with budgetary constraints, student management problems during a pandemic, and issues in the documentation approach. Beyond management techniques, the project required leadership that kept the team aware of the big picture and willing to finish a complex satellite platform. The paper discusses the ESTCube-2 design and its development, highlights the team’s main technical, management, and leadership issues, and presents suggestions for nanosatellite and nanospacecraft developers. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in CubeSat Sails and Tethers (2nd Edition))
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