SOLAR SAIL PARKING IN RESTRICTED 3-BODY SYSTEMS

Stationary solutions to the restricted three-body problem for solar sa il spacecraft in the Earth-sun and Earth-moon systems are investigated . It is found that the usual five Lagrange points are extended to a co ntinuum of new artificial points that form level surfaces parameterize d by the sail mass per unit ares. Analytic expressions for the sail ma ss per unit area and the sail attitude required for these stationary s olutions are obtained and the stability of the solutions examined. It is found that although in general the solutions are unstable, a simple closed-loop control scheme may be developed to ensure asymptotic stab ility.