NASA NTRS · 19910045396
Solar array orientations for a space station in low earth orbit
Abstract
A large portion of the drag of a space station in LEO is generated by its solar array; for a baseline 25-kW solar array in 334-km orbit, 1800 kg of reboost propellant/year is needed to counteract solar array drag. A study is conducted of the drag reduction potential of three possible solar array orientations: sun-pointing, sun-pointing during illumination/edge-on during eclipse, and edge-on during entire orbit. An 18.5-percent drag-makeup propellant reduction is found to be obtainable with the sun-pointing/edge-on eclipse orientation technique.
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Landis, Geoffrey A., Lu, Cheng-Yi. 1991-02-01. Solar array orientations for a space station in low earth orbit. https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/19910045396
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