Control Capability and Allocation of Solar Sail Tip Vanes over Bounded Movement

Control capabilities of the solar sail tip vane over a bounded movement range was reported. The overlapping part of the vane was proportional to the overlapping part of the edge of the vane. To avoid overlapping, the movement range of the control vane was limited. In the valid movement range, some output torques of vanes reflected the characteristic that a single sign torque was dominant, such as positive torque was dominant for the y-axis output torque of vane V1 when the sun is on one side of the solar sail and negative torque was dominant when the sun is on the other side of the solar sail. Control vanes were required to output only a single torque (either positive or negative) in the x axis and y axis without sacrificing significant control authority. Therefore, control torques about the x axis and y axis were decoupled and the means to perform the allocation were simplified.