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These trajectories rely on idealised multi-body resonances and carefully phased gravity assists, with little flexibility beyond the highly constrained natural gravitational dynamics.\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"Solar sails provide continuous, propellant-free thrust that fundamentally alters the solution space, enabling families of cycler orbits that either generalise ballistic solutions or are infeasible under purely ballistic dynamics. The existence of such solar sail cyclers for circular-coplanar orbits was identified by Stevens and Ross \", \"[3]\", \", and has been extended to up to four cycles in \", \"[4]\", \".\"), mdx(\"div\", {\n    style: {\n      \"float\": 'right',\n      width: '500px',\n      margin: '0 0 1rem 1.5rem'\n    }\n  }, mdx(Image, {\n    src: \"/images/projects/solarsail_cyclers/multicycler_Earth_7(Mars_Earth)_heatmap.png\",\n    caption: \"Overview of the Earth\\u2013Mars solar sail cycler architecture.\",\n    mdxType: \"Image\"\n  })), mdx(\"p\", null, \"Systematic approaches to designing solar sail stop-over cyclers \", \"[5, 6]\", \" exist. However, a general framework for identifying and characterising sail-enabled cycler geometries beyond circular coplanar orbits is missing. To build on these works, we explore the design space of solar sail cycler orbits between single- and multi-body bodies.\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"To search and characterise solar sail cyclers, we formulate the problem as a reachability problem \", \"[7]\", \", where the objective is to find the minimum solar sail strength required to make a given transfer feasible. Rather than solving a specific transfer, which may yield an infeasible optimal control problem, this reformulation converts the problem into a well-posed nonlinear program. The model adopts a multi-gravity-assist structure with solar sail legs, which are transcribed using a forward\\u2013backward zero-order hold (ZOH) construction with variable-time segments \", \"[8]\", \".\"), mdx(\"div\", {\n    style: {\n      marginBottom: '2rem'\n    }\n  }, mdx(\"video\", {\n    width: \"100%\",\n    autoPlay: true,\n    loop: true,\n    muted: true,\n    playsInline: true\n  }, mdx(\"source\", {\n    src: \"/images/projects/solarsail_cyclers/multicycler_Earth_7(Mars_Earth)_animation_example_0.0_0.0.mp4\",\n    type: \"video/mp4\"\n  }))), mdx(\"div\", {\n    style: {\n      marginBottom: '2rem'\n    }\n  }, mdx(\"video\", {\n    width: \"100%\",\n    autoPlay: true,\n    loop: true,\n    muted: true,\n    playsInline: true\n  }, mdx(\"source\", {\n    src: \"/images/projects/solarsail_cyclers/multicycler_Earth_7(Mars_Earth)_animation_example_7.0_10.0.mp4\",\n    type: \"video/mp4\"\n  }))), mdx(\"h2\", null, \"References\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"[1]\", \" Hollister, W. M. \\u201CPeriodic orbits for interplanetary flight.\\u201D Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets, Vol. 6, No. 4, pp. 366\\u2013369, 1969. doi:10.2514/3.29664. eprint: \", mdx(\"a\", {\n    parentName: \"p\",\n    \"href\": \"https://doi.org/10.2514/3.29664\"\n  }, \"https://doi.org/10.2514/3.29664\"), \".\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"[2]\", \" Byrnes, D. V., Longuski, J. M., and Aldrin, B. \\u201CCycler orbit between Earth and Mars.\\u201D Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets, Vol. 30, No. 3, pp. 334\\u2013336, 1993. doi:10.2514/3.25519. eprint: \", mdx(\"a\", {\n    parentName: \"p\",\n    \"href\": \"https://doi.org/10.2514/3.25519\"\n  }, \"https://doi.org/10.2514/3.25519\"), \".\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"[3]\", \" Stevens, R. and Ross, I. M. \\u201CPreliminary Design of Earth-Mars Cyclers Using Solar Sails.\\u201D Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets, Vol. 42, No. 1, pp. 132\\u2013137, Jan. 2005. ISSN 0022-4650, 1533-6794. doi:10.2514/1.2947.\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"[4]\", \" Rozhkov, M. and Starinova, O. \\u201CCyclic Interplanetary Motion of a Cargo Solar Sail.\\u201D \\u201CProceedings From The 6th International Symposium On Space Sailing (ISSS23),\\u201D 2023.\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"[5]\", \" Mengali, G. and Quarta, A. A. \\u201CSolar-Sail-Based Stopover Cyclers for Cargo Transportation Missions.\\u201D Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets, Vol. 44, No. 4, pp. 822\\u2013830, Jul. 2007. ISSN 0022-4650, 1533-6794. doi:10.2514/1.24423.\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"[6]\", \" Miguel, N., Colombo, C., and Vedova, F. D. \\u201CSystematic Construction of Solar-Sail-Based Stopover Cyclers.\\u201D The Journal of the Astronautical Sciences, Vol. 70, No. 2, p. 6, Mar. 2023. ISSN 2195-0571. doi: 10.1007/s40295-023-00372-0.\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"[7]\", \" Acciarini, G., Izzo, D., and Zhang, Z. \\u201CReachability for Low-Thrust Trajectories via Maximum Initial Mass.\\u201D arXiv preprint arXiv:2605.23770, 2026.\"), mdx(\"p\", null, \"[8]\", \" Izzo, D., Holt, H., Acciarini, G., Beauregard, L., and Shimane, Y. \\u201CA practical guide to implementing zero-order-hold interplanetary trajectory legs.\\u201D arXiv preprint arXiv:2605.11043, 2026.\"));\n}\n;\nMDXContent.isMDXComponent = true;","fields":{"slug":"/projects/solarsail_cyclers/"},"frontmatter":{"title":"Solar Sail Cycler Orbits","pagetype":null,"categories":["mad"],"author":null,"institution":null,"banner":null,"banner_caption":null,"headline":null,"image_src":"/images/projects/solarsail_cyclers/Earth_6(Mars_Earth)_stopover_clean.png","date":"2026-06-03T00:00:00.000Z","time":null,"outcome":[{"actCategory":"Mission Analysis","authors":"Harry Holt,\n                  Dario Izzo, \n                  Chit Hong Yam and\n                  Zhong Zhang","booktitle":null,"editor":null,"institution":null,"journal":"30th International Symposium on Space Flight Dynamics (ISSFD)","key":"MAD-con-108","kind":"Conference paper","month":null,"number":null,"organization":null,"pages":null,"publisher":null,"quarter":null,"rawBibtex":"@inproceedings{Harry2026Cycler,\n\tauthor = {Harry Holt, Dario Izzo, Chit Hong Yam and Zhang, Zhong},\n\tbooktitle = {30th {International} {Symposium} on {Space} {Flight} {Dynamics} ({ISSFD})},\n\tyear = {2026},\n\ttitle = {Cycler and {Self}-{Cycler} {Orbits} using {Solar} {Sails}},\n\thowpublished = {https://backoffice.inviteo.com/upload/compte518/Base/inscriptions\\textunderscore{}projets/supplement18/21064-issfd\\textunderscore{}cyclers.pdf},\n}\n\n","title":"Cycler and Self-Cycler Orbits using Solar Sails","type":"inproceedings","url":"https://backoffice.inviteo.com/upload/compte518/Base/inscriptions_projets/supplement18/21064-issfd_cyclers.pdf","volume":null,"year":"2026"}]}}},"pageContext":{"id":"b22e8a5c-ba97-5d4b-a2e2-a0c90f5304b9"}},
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