Passive Sorting of Asteroid Material Using Solar Radiation Pressure

Regolith migration and sorting on asteroid Itokawa.

High-resolution images of the surface of asteroid Itokawa from the Hayabusa mission reveal it to be covered with unconsolidated millimeter-sized and larger gravels. Locations and morphologic characteristics of this gravel indicate that Itokawa has experienced considerable vibrations, which have triggered global-scale granular processes in its dry, vacuum, microgravity environment. These process...

Harvesting Near Earth Asteroid Resources Using Solar Sail Technology

There may be differences between this version and the published version. You are advised to consult the publisher's version if you wish to cite from it. Near Earth asteroids represent a wealth of material resources to support future space ventures. These resources include water from C-type asteroids for crew logistic support; liquid propellants electrolytically cracked from water to fuel crewed...

Passive Solar Lighting Using Fiber Optics

A new Solar Radiation Pressure Model for the GPS Satellites

The largest error in currently used GPS orbit models is due to the effect of solar radiation pressure. Over the last few years many improvements were made in modeling the orbits of GPS satellites within the IGS. However, most improvements were achieved by increasing the number of estimated orbit and/or solar radiation pressure parameters. This increase in the number of estimated satellite param...

Solar Radiation Pressure Effects on Very High-eccentric Formation Flying

A real alternative to Lagrange point very low perturbed orbits, for universe observation missions, is high eccentric Earth orbits. Combination of high eccentricity and very large semi-major axis leads to orbits with an important part of flight time far from Earth and its perturbations. Modeling this particular relative motion is the scoop of this paper. Main perturbation in HEO orbits are solar...