Passive orbit control for space-based geo-engineering

A study was conducted to demonstrate the use of sail propulsion to stabilize a spacecraft about an artificial libration point. It was demonstrated that the constant acceleration from a solar sail had the potential to be used to generate artificial libration points in the Earth-sun three-body problem. This was achieved by directing the thrust due to the sail such that it added to the centripetal and gravitational forces. A potential alternative to stabilizing a sail about an artificial libration point was to fix the attitude of the solar sail and actuate the lightness number. Sail lightness number β was the ratio of the solar radiation pressure acceleration to the solar gravitational acceleration. This lightness number control, called β, offered the potential of passive stabilization of a sail about artificial libration points. The setting of the circular restricted three-body problem (CRTBP) was also used to assess the use of β control where the massless body was a solar sail and the primaries were the Sun and Earth.