Solar Satellites

Orbital Dynamics of Large Solar Power Satellites

Structural Control System Design for Space Solar Power Satellites

The major objective of this study is to develop an integrated orbit, attitude, and structural control system architecture for very large Space Solar Power Satellites (SSPS) in geosynchronous orbit. This study focuses on the 1.2-GW “Abacus” SSPS concept characterized by a 3.2 × 3.2 km solar-array platform, a 500-m diameter microwave beam transmitting antenna, and a 500 × 700 m earth-tracking ref...

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...

Do satellites detect trends in surface solar radiation?

Long-term variations in solar radiation at Earth's surface (S) can affect our climate, the hydrological cycle, plant photosynthesis, and solar power. Sustained decreases in S have been widely reported from about the year 1960 to 1990. Here we present an estimate of global temporal variations in S by using the longest available satellite record. We observed an overall increase in S from 1983 to ...

Stability of Distant Satellites of the Giant Planets in the Solar System

We conduct a systematic survey of the regions in which distant satellites can orbit stably around the four giant planets in the solar system, using orbital integrations of up to 109 yr. In contrast to previous investigations, we use a grid of initial conditions on a surface of section to explore phase space uniformly inside and outside the planet’s Hill sphere (radius rH; satellites outside the...