Comparison of solar sail spacecraft flight and low thrust spacecraft flight to potentially hazardous asteroid orbit

This paper outlines the nonlinear flight simulation of a low thrust spacecraft and a solar sail spacecraft. The main purpose of the work is ballistic comparison of solar sail spacecraft flight and low thrust spacecraft flight. The mathematical motion model for such types of spacecraft is formulated and described. The work considers the mathematical motion models within the heliocentric system of coordinates. Motion simulation process is the best way to assess the reasonableness of the mathematical model. On the basis of the formulated mathematical models, a special software for nonlinear flight simulation is developed. In particular, the flight of the low thrust spacecraft from Earth's orbit to the potentially hazardous asteroid is simulated. The findings of the work consist of heliocentric trajectories, time dependency graphs of flight parameters, the values of flight duration and the value of propellant consumption. (C) 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.