System Modeling and Control of a Heliogyro Solar Sail

A heliogyro solar sail concept has recently been proposed as an alternative to deep space missions without the need for on-board propellant. Although this type of solar sail has existed conceptually for several decades, and some previous studies have investigated certain aspects of its operation, a significant amount of research is still needed to analyze the dynamic and control characteristics of the structure under the projected range of orbital conditions. This research effort provides an improvement upon the existing discrete-mass models of the heliogyro blade, and the extension of its application from a single membrane blade to a fully-coupled approximation of the dynamics of the structure with multiple spinning membrane blades around a central hub. Additionally, this work investigates the implementation of a control algorithm at each blade root to impose structural integrity and attitude control by coordinating well-known helicopter blade pitching profiles.