Solar sailing for station keeping?

[Errol]

Would it be possible to perform station keeping for a vessel in low earth orbit with a solar sail? What about a higher orbit? 

[Kryten]

In a low earth orbit the drag from a sail would vastly outweigh the solar pressure.

Edited April 17, 2016 by Kryten

[Errol]

What about way up there, like in geosynchronous or something. Is there an altitude  (semi major axis) where drag is low enough? Im more interested in the navigational issues. What if all you wanted to keep up there was a tiny cube sat or something with a camera? Is it possible to maintain any orbit of any vessel around a planet with a solar sail?

[fredinno]

1 hour ago, Errol said:

What about way up there, like in geosynchronous or something. Is there an altitude  (semi major axis) where drag is low enough? Im more interested in the navigational issues. What if all you wanted to keep up there was a tiny cube sat or something with a camera? Is it possible to maintain any orbit of any vessel around a planet with a solar sail?

It is, but you'd need to constant adjust the sail to make sure your solar sails don't pull your obit in places you don't want them to.

You also need a huge solar sail in GEO, as those satellites are generally over 3 T in mass. No solar sail is yet big enough to move something of that size.

I'd start with MEO GPS sats.

 

But it's definitely possible to make planetary probes with Cubesats using solar sails. NASA is planning on a few right now, to launch on EM-1.

[AngelLestat]

What you mean by station keeping @Errol?

Low orbit altitude with geosynchronous speed? 
Just attitude adjustments?  
Equator or Pole?   Of course a solar sails can not float if the light comes from behind.

This is a possible polar orbit for solar sail:

 

The yellow cone is just to show that certain instrument can monitor that zone 24/7.

To float over the pole without orbital speed and counter earth gravity, you need a solar sail density of 0.01g by m2, which may be achievable within 7 years, you also need direct sunlight (1366w/m2 all the time), so in practice you will have some orbital speed as the shown in the picture with lower density requirements.

You get 6.7 Newtons by gigawatt.
A solar sail for example can be very usefull as early warming against solar flares, because you place the solar sail in mercury distance (or closer) but with the same orbital period than earth.

But still not sure to understand your question. 

[Errol]

My buddies and I were having a debate about this. We know that things in orbit experience orbital decay, for which they must do station keeping burns to correct. We were wondering if it would be possible to use a solar sail to do the same thing.

My knee jerk reaction was that there would not be more force from the sun then there would be drag on the sail, and therefore you would not be able to keep it inflated. For the sailors on here, it would be like trying to use a spinnaker in light wind while you are motoring along.

But what if you went higher.

So, lets say you want to send something of x size to y equatorial orbit then have it stay in orbit as long as possible. My question is specifically about how you would angle the sail, or if it would even be possible to use the sail to maintain a circular orbit around a planetary body. You can do prograde acceleration before going to the night side and retrograde before coming around to the day side. Wouldn't this endevour be doomed to failure because you have no way using this means to raise your periapse?

[fredinno]

3 hours ago, AngelLestat said:

What you mean by station keeping @Errol?

Low orbit altitude with geosynchronous speed? 
Just attitude adjustments?  
Equator or Pole?   Of course a solar sails can not float if the light comes from behind.

This is a possible polar orbit for solar sail:

 

The yellow cone is just to show that certain instrument can monitor that zone 24/7.

To float over the pole without orbital speed and counter earth gravity, you need a solar sail density of 0.01g by m2, which may be achievable within 7 years, you also need direct sunlight (1366w/m2 all the time), so in practice you will have some orbital speed as the shown in the picture with lower density requirements.

You get 6.7 Newtons by gigawatt.
A solar sail for example can be very usefull as early warming against solar flares, because you place the solar sail in mercury distance (or closer) but with the same orbital period than earth.

But still not sure to understand your question. 

That's called a Statite, and we don't have the tech to make it yet- for one, it needs to be made in space.

36 minutes ago, Errol said:

My buddies and I were having a debate about this. We know that things in orbit experience orbital decay, for which they must do station keeping burns to correct. We were wondering if it would be possible to use a solar sail to do the same thing.

My knee jerk reaction was that there would not be more force from the sun then there would be drag on the sail, and therefore you would not be able to keep it inflated. For the sailors on here, it would be like trying to use a spinnaker in light wind while you are motoring along.

But what if you went higher.

So, lets say you want to send something of x size to y equatorial orbit then have it stay in orbit as long as possible. My question is specifically about how you would angle the sail, or if it would even be possible to use the sail to maintain a circular orbit around a planetary body. You can do prograde acceleration before going to the night side and retrograde before coming around to the day side. Wouldn't this endevour be doomed to failure because you have no way using this means to raise your periapse?

No, it still works to raise perpasis. I forgot how though.

[Nibb31]

5 hours ago, Errol said:

My buddies and I were having a debate about this. We know that things in orbit experience orbital decay, for which they must do station keeping burns to correct. We were wondering if it would be possible to use a solar sail to do the same thing.

Decay is mainly due to drag. You counter decay by reboosting, like on the ISS. This is typically only done on your prograde vector. A solar sail in this case would be counter-effective, because it would generate more drag than it could reboost.

Station-keeping is used to counter drift. Drift can be due to solar wind or undesired gravitational effects, so station-keeping is necessary to prevent satellites from straying from their desired orbit or trajectory. Station keeping requires thrusting in any direction, while maintaining the operational attitude of the spacecraft (keeping the antennas or sensors pointed), so you are going to need a complex actuator system to manoeuver your sail. You are still going to need thrusters for attitude control, and you are probably going to need stronger attitude control to counter the solar pressure on the sail. Although you might save some fuel, I'm not sure it's worth the extra mass.

 

 

[magnemoe]

12 hours ago, Errol said:

My buddies and I were having a debate about this. We know that things in orbit experience orbital decay, for which they must do station keeping burns to correct. We were wondering if it would be possible to use a solar sail to do the same thing.

My knee jerk reaction was that there would not be more force from the sun then there would be drag on the sail, and therefore you would not be able to keep it inflated. For the sailors on here, it would be like trying to use a spinnaker in light wind while you are motoring along.

But what if you went higher.

So, lets say you want to send something of x size to y equatorial orbit then have it stay in orbit as long as possible. My question is specifically about how you would angle the sail, or if it would even be possible to use the sail to maintain a circular orbit around a planetary body. You can do prograde acceleration before going to the night side and retrograde before coming around to the day side. Wouldn't this endevour be doomed to failure because you have no way using this means to raise your periapse?

orbital decay is an constrain in low earth orbit so you would not use solar sails there. 
In higher orbits orbital decay is far less but doubt you could use an solar sail to compensate, first the decay would be far longer than the lifetime of the satellite while the sail don't only add mass and drag but is also an complex mechanism so you are better off using engines for station-keeping. 

Now if you build an very large scale and lightweight radio telescope or solar cell array this might experience solar sail effects who you had to compensate for, one way to do this would be to add more sails

[AngelLestat]

Like everybody said, on the matter of attitude control does not pay off, neither in higher orbits.
They can work to increase or decrease your apo or periapsis, but if you need to rotate your craft (when you are already turning around earth, which increase your attitude accelerations needs with a constant sun angle changing), then it does not have any sense due its low acceleration and the increased complexity of the maneuver.

But if we talk about a solar sail orbiting the sun then everything changes..
Here is possible and useful to use a solar sail like attitude control and propulsion. Because you have a lot of time to react between orbital periods,  even if your orbit is super close to the sun, your acceleration to make any maneuver also increase a lot.

Basic solar sails maneuvers: 

You can go in any of those directions, your thrust is always normal or at 45 degree, in this next image we can see how the solar sail angle should be pointed to lose orbital speed and reduce your periapsis.

Solar sail control in planet orbits is possible (with some drawbacks), there is books about that.. but too complex if you just need attitude control for earth sats.