Modeling the Dynamics of a Rotary Solar SailUsing MSC Adam
Authors: Popov A.S., Usalimova V.V.
Published in issue: #1(169)/2026
Category: Aviation and Rocket-Space Engineering | Chapter: Aircraft Dynamics, Ballistics, Motion Control
One of the promising directions in cosmonautics is the use of a solar sail in spacecraft design. Modeling the dynamics of such devices is a challenging task, since the sail itself is a compliant thin-film structure. In this study, the sail is modeled as a set of sections composed of cylinders connected by spherical hinges. This approach made it possible to obtain a plausible blade bending shape that corresponds to the deflection profile derived analytically in other studies on this subject. The study involved modeling the dynamics of a two-bladed, rotation-stabilized, sublimating heliorotor-type solar sail. Dependences of the sail blade tip deflection and the magnitude of the spacecraft center-of-mass acceleration on the initial angular velocity of the spacecraft have been obtained. The results have been compared with analytical calculations.
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