Exploitation of STRP and [formula omitted] perturbations for deorbitation of spacecraft through attitude control.

In this work, we propose a solution to deorbit a plate-like spacecraft by exploiting a Solar and Thermal Radiation Pressure (STRP) resonance, more specifically the STRP- J 2 - ϕ resonance in semi-major axis, by using attitude control to enforce the resonance at all time. The feasibility of the strategy is verified in a realistic environment modelled by the coupled orbit-attitude propagator D-SPOSE where the full dynamics is propagated by including STRP, gravitational and atmospheric perturbing accelerations and torques. The strategy is compared to three alternate deorbitation strategies; one is our previous solution based on eccentricity resonance and the other two solutions are from prior literature and involve a bang–bang approach to either lower the orbit's semi-major axis or to increase its eccentricity. Finally, a power/energy analysis is performed to assess the feasibility of the resonance and bang–bang semi-major axis deorbitation schemes. • A resonance in semi-major axis can be generated through appropriate attitude control. • Deorbitation using STRP via a decrease is often more efficient than via e increase. • a resonance for deorbitation is suitable for spacecraft with large A / m. • Power required to enforce proper attitude motion for a resonance is negligible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]