@InProceedings{MeirelesPradPereMelo:2021:UsSoSa,
               author = "Meireles, Lucas Gouv{\^e}a and Prado, Antonio Fernando Bertachini 
                         de Almeida and Pereira, Maria Cec{\'{\i}}lia and Melo, Cristiano 
                         F. de",
          affiliation = "{Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais (INPE)} and {Instituto 
                         Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais (INPE)} and {Universidade Federal 
                         de Minas Gerais (UFMG)} and {Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais 
                         (UFMG)}",
                title = "Using Solar Sails to stabilize orbits around asteroids with 
                         irregular gravitational fields",
                 year = "2021",
         organization = "IAA Planetary Defense conference",
            publisher = "IAA",
             keywords = "Solar sailing, Orbital Mechanics, Attitude strategy, Mission 
                         design, Planetary Defense.",
             abstract = "The exploration and study of asteroids has been triggering an 
                         increasing interest in the space community. The study of asteroids 
                         scientific purposes relies on the wide range of information they 
                         contain about the origin of planets and life. They also present an 
                         interesting economic perspective when considering the possibility 
                         of space mining, given that they present a great amount of rare 
                         metals and mineral resources in their compositions in many cases. 
                         Some of these bodies, known as Near-Earth Asteroids, also present 
                         a threat to life on Earth. Their trajectories exhibit a constant 
                         risk of interception and collision with planet Earth. With that in 
                         mind, a more urgent matter of detecting and investigating 
                         strategies to avoid these potential catastrophic events also 
                         presents itself as a great motivator for the study of these 
                         bodies. Consequently, a mission in which a spacecraft is sent to 
                         orbit an asteroid to study its shape and composition is of great 
                         interest to the scientific community. However, the modeling of the 
                         dynamics of an orbit around one of these bodies presents some 
                         challenges. Their small masses, irregular shapes and mass 
                         distribution result in gravitational fields with different 
                         conditions for any keplerian orbits to be achieved. It is possible 
                         to search for conditions in which quasi-periodic orbits may be 
                         achieved, but the extent of a possible mission in this scenario is 
                         also limited by the natural settings of the problem. With that in 
                         mind, this study proposes the use of a solar sail embarked in the 
                         spacecraft as a form of thrust to stabilize and increase the time 
                         in which the spacecraft maintains itself orbiting the asteroid. 
                         This is possible by implementing a strategy to orient the sails 
                         pointing direction as a function of the spacecrafts relative 
                         position regarding the asteroid. As a consequence of using a solar 
                         sail with the correct attitude strategy, it is possible to extend 
                         the duration of an asteroid exploration mission. This means a more 
                         cost efficient mission, which is capable of performing a more 
                         detailed study of its final target.",
  conference-location = "Vienna, Austria",
      conference-year = "26-30 apr.",
             language = "en",
           targetfile = "2b3fe8d0391b4d04955718ee6d4a83d3.pdf",
        urlaccessdate = "01 maio 2024"
}