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