TITLE:
Using Spherical Harmonics to model Solar Radiation Pressure Accelerations

2017 AAS/AIAA Astrodynamics Specialist Conference Columbia River Gorge, Stevenson, WA, United States, 20-24 August 2017.

AUTHORS:
Ariadna Farres, Dave Folta, Cassandra Webster

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center,

E-mails: ariadna.farres@maia.ub.es

ABSTRACT:
Solar Radiation Pressure (SRP) is the acceleration produced by the impact of the
photons emitted by the Sun on the surface of a satellite. The incident photons are
absorbed and reflected by the different components on the satellite's surface, where
the rate of absorption and reflection depends on the properties of the satellite's
surface material. The acceleration produced by SRP plays an important role on
the design and navigation of Libration Point Orbits and interplanetary trajectories.
In this paper we introduce an alternative way to obtain high fidelity models for the
SRP acceleration using a Spherical Harmonic approximation.