• solar sail

A solar sail uses thin sheets of the reflective membrane to take advantage of sunlight for propulsive purposes. The studied square solar sail has four separate triangular sail sectors attached to the booms via cables in five points (5PCS). The software used in this thesis is ABAQUS. The purpose of this thesis is to study the dynamic response of the sail to torque control. In the first instance, static analysis was carried out to study the type of optimal pre-tensioning of the sail and to study the vibratory modes. Then dynamic analysis was carried out to study the pure orbital motion of the sail placed in a heliocentric orbit and subjected to centrifugal force, gravitational attraction, and solar radiation pressure. Lastly, the dynamic response of the sail to two command laws was studied. To maintain the desired attitude, suitable control torques were applied to the sail using a series of Reflectivity Control Devices (RCDs). The whole analysis was done for a 20-meter and a 35-meter sail.