New Families of Quasi-Periodic Orbits about the L1 Photo-Gravitational Equilibrium in the Sun/Earth-Moon Center of Mass Circular Restricted Three-Body Problem for Planetary Sunshade Applications

This research focuses on the analysis of possible orbits for distributed swarms of solar-sail satellites within the Planetary Sunshades framework. Considering the Circular Restricted Three Body Problem, the choice of the possible operational regions is presented, followed by a search for non-Keplerian periodic orbits around the photo-gravitational equilibrium point L1, with the goal of covering, totally or partially, the maximum area of the occulting disk required. Special attention is given to how solar radiation pressure can be exploited not only as a perturbation but as a primary control input, generating families of non-Keplerian orbits and translating sail orientation into effective actuator effort. The central theme is the coupling between the attitude and position dynamics of the solar sails, analysed initially by neglecting the inertia of the satellites to obtain the desired attitude angles along the orbits, and then adding inertia to discuss the ideal torques required to obtain those attitude angles. Finally, the focus is on quasi-periodic orbits, discussing how to obtain them and their main characteristics. Different families of periodic and quasi-periodic orbits are introduced, and their relative attitude histories are shown.