Integrated Attitude and Orbit Control of an Interstellar Heliopause Probe

Solar sailing has been identified as a promising and enabling technology for future space missions; as such it is currently the object of a significant research effort within various space agencies, the academic world and industry. Active research and development activities have been performed by the European Space Agency (ESA) in the recent years to increase the technological readiness level of the key elements allowing the deployment and control of a spacecraft efficiently propelled by solar radiation pressure. A six-degree-of-freedom simulation environment has been developed to obtain the main results of the study and validate the attitude and orbit control concepts proposed for the Interstellar Heliopause Probe (IHP) mission is presented.