Low-thrust transfer with Theory of Functional Connections: Application to 243 Ida with a solar sail

Abstract

A spacecraft needs to perform maneuvers in the neighborhood of the body that it orbits in order to achieve the targets of its mission. These maneuvers are usually performed with propellant based engines. Solar sails, as low-thrust propulsion systems, represent a way to perform them without fuel consumption, but it necessitates to change their orientation in order to generate the desired thrust, which is a complex procedure. In this paper, we propose a new method to perform propellant-free maneuvers with a solar sail using the Theory of Functional Connections. This method is applied to the asteroid Ida in the context of transfers between artificial equilibrium points.