| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
My research focuses on new use cases of solar sails for LEO applications. Solar sails traditionally operate in deep space, beyond Earth orbit. Their use in LEO appears promising yet has received limited attention until now. During my JSPS DC2 Fellowship (April-September 2022), I delivered two main outputs: (i) a high-fidelity simulator of the LEO environment, considering the unique modelling requirements of solar sails in this region; and (ii) I employed the simulator to shed light on the fundamental orbit and attitude dynamic characteristics of LEO solar sails.
Subsequently, during my JSPS PD Fellowship (October 2022) and Assistant Professorship (November 2022 - present), I extended and used the in-house orbit-attitude simulator, combined with knowledge gained on the dynamics via novel analytical tools, to design and evaluate new mission concepts for LEO solar sails. Thanks to financial support from JSPS, I was able to present the results at an international conference, where I received interest in my research and helpful suggestions for future work. In addition, I have submitted four papers on the research conducted during my JSPS DC2 and PD Fellowships to international journals, of which one is now in press, two under second review, and one under first review.
In summary, I was able to successfully achieve all of the main research objectives of my JSPS PD Fellowship.
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