On the station keeping of a solar sail in the elliptic Sun–Earth system Original Research Article

In this work we focus on the dynamics of a solar sail in the Sun–Earth Elliptic Restricted Three-Body Problem with solar radiation pressure. The considered situation is the motion of a sail close to the L1 point, but displacing the equilibrium point with the sail so that it is possible to have continuous communication with the Earth. In previous works we derived a station keeping strategy for this situation but using the Circular RTBP as a model.In this paper we discuss the effect of the eccentricity in the region close to the sail-displaced L1 point of the Circular RTBP. Then we show how to use the information on this dynamics to design a station keeping strategy. Finally, we apply these results to the GeoStorm mission, including errors in the sail orientation and on the estimation of the position of the sail in the simulations.