Solar sail optimal control law with piecewise constant cone angle for deep-space mission scenarios

The research that has been conducted focuses on the trajectory optimization for a solar sail towards several different deep space mission scenarios. The discussed simplified model allows to find accurate solutions for the cases studied dividing the trajectory into a number of arcs along each of which the cone angle is kept constant. The obtained results show adherence with existent literature data assessing the reliability of this method. The survey has begun with the aim to expand through the application of the optical force model the already existent data for two mission scenarios towards the outer solar system already computed with the same approach. Then the method has been applied to other mission scenarios towards the inner solar system, namely Mars and Venus rendezvous, and to orbital phasing both in an ideal and an optical force model. The main advantage showed by this method is that it is able to give an accurate estimation of total flight time in a reasonable computational time without the aid of an initial guessing of the costate variables, needed instead for other approaches. To sum up, this research led to the conclusion that a further deepening of this model is advisable to refine and expand the already valuable estimations that it provides