An intrinsic way to control E-sail spin [IMA]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1406.6847


We show that by having the auxtethers made partly or completely of conducting material and by controlling their voltages, it is possible to control the spin rate of the electric solar wind sail by using the electric sail effect itself. The proposed intrinsic spin rate control scheme has enough control authority to overcome the secular change of the spin rate due to orbital Coriolis effect.

Read this paper on arXiv…

P. Janhunen and P. Toivanen
Fri, 27 Jun 14
2/51

Comments: 6 pages, 2 figures, submitted to Journal of Guidance, Control and Dynamics