Orbital dynamics of “smart-dust” devices with solar radiation pressure and drag

Abstract

This paper investigates how perturbations due to asymmetric solar radiation pressure, in the presence of Earth
shadow, and atmospheric drag can be balanced to obtain long-lived Earth-centered orbits for swarms of microscale
“smart-dust” devices, without the use of active control. The secular variation of Keplerian elements is expressed
analytically through an averaging technique. Families of solutions are then identified in which sun-synchronous
apse-line precession is achieved passively to maintain asymmetric solar radiation pressure. The long-term orbit
evolution is characterized by librational motion, progressively decaying due to the nonconservative effect of
atmospheric drag. Long-lived orbits can then be designed through the interaction of energy gain from asymmetric
solar radiation pressure and energy dissipation due to drag. In this way, the usual short drag lifetime of such higharea-
to-mass spacecraft can be greatly extended (and indeed selected). In addition, the effect of atmospheric drag can
be exploited to ensure the rapid end-of-life decay of such devices, thus preventing long-lived orbit debris

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Identifiers

ORCID for Camilla Colombo: orcid.org/0000-0001-9636-9360

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