Second approximation structural assessment of the Aurora solar sail spacecraft

• Published in: Acta astronautica Vol. 54; no. 2; pp. 115 - 125
• Main Authors: Genta, G, Brusa, E, Delprete, C
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01-01-2004
• ISSN: 0094-5765
• DOI: 10.1016/80094-5765(02)00288-6

Aurora spacecraft is a scientific probe propelled by a "fast" solar sail whose first goal is to perform a technology assessment mission. A key point of the experiment is the possibility of building a very light structure in order to achieve a high speed with the very low force due to the pressure of solar light. This in turn implies the need to perform a very accurate stress analysis of the whole structure. A first approximation study allowed one to verify that the structural goals that were stated in the preliminary design can be met. The aim of the present paper is to build a complete mathematical model based on the finite element method (FEM) of the whole spacecraft allowing to perform a detailed stress analysis of the various components and to compute the inflected shape of the sail. The code that has been developed can take into account the effects of the thermal expansion of the sail and of the spacecraft acceleration and can be adapted to solar sail spacecraft with different geometrical configurations.