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Design and Trade-offs of a Pole-Sitter Mission

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Advances in Solar Sailing

Part of the book series: Springer Praxis Books ((ASTROENG))

Abstract

This paper provides a mission analysis and systems design of a pole-sitter mission, i.e. a spacecraft that is continuously above an Earth Pole, and can provide real-time, continuous and hemispherical coverage of the polar regions. Two different propulsion strategies are proposed: solar electric propulsion (SEP) and SEP hybridized with a solar sail. For both, minimum-propellant pole-sitter orbits and transfers are designed, assuming Soyuz and Ariane 5 launch options. A mass budget analysis allows for a trade-off between mission lifetime and payload mass capacity (up to 7 years for 100 kg), and candidate payloads for a range of applications are investigated.

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Acknowledgments

This work was funded by the European Research Council, as part of project 227571 VISIONSPACE. The authors thank Dr. Victor M. Becerra, of the School of Systems Engineering, University of Reading, Reading, UK for providing the software PSOPT freely, as well as advices on its use.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, G4 0LT, UK

    Matteo Ceriotti, Jeannette Heiligers & Colin R. McInnes

  2. University of Glasgow, James Watt Building South, Glasgow, G12 8QQ, UK

    Matteo Ceriotti

  3. Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Advanced Space Concepts Laboratory, 141 St. James Road, Glasgow, UK

    Jeannette Heiligers & Colin R. McInnes

Authors
  1. Matteo Ceriotti
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  2. Jeannette Heiligers
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  3. Colin R. McInnes
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Matteo Ceriotti .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, United Kingdom

    Malcolm Macdonald

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Ceriotti, M., Heiligers, J., McInnes, C.R. (2014). Design and Trade-offs of a Pole-Sitter Mission. In: Macdonald, M. (eds) Advances in Solar Sailing. Springer Praxis Books(). Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-34907-2_20

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-34907-2_20

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-34906-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-34907-2

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