Solar Sail Trajectories to Earth’s Trojan Asteroids

Abstract

The recent discovery of Earth’s second Trojan asteroid (2020 XL5), which will remain in the vicinity of the Sun–[Earth+Moon] triangular Lagrangian point L4 for at least 4000 years, has attracted the attention of the scientific community as a remarkable example of those elusive objects that are the witnesses of the first phase of our Solar System. The possibility that an Earth’s Trojan asteroid (ETa) may represent a pristine record of the initial conditions of the Solar System formation makes these small objects an interesting target for a robotic exploration mission. This paper analyzes orbit-to-orbit Earth–ETa transfer trajectories of an interplanetary spacecraft propelled by a solar sail. In the last decade, some pioneering space missions have confirmed the feasibility and potentiality of the solar sail concept as a propellantless propulsion system able to convert the solar radiation pressure in a continuous thrust by means of a large, lightweight and highly reflective surface. Using the state-of-the-art level of solar sail technology, this paper studies the performance of a solar-sail-based transfer trajectory toward an ETa from an optimal viewpoint and with a parametric approach.

Keywords

• solar sail
• Earth’s Trojan asteroids
• trajectory optimization
• mission analysis