Satellite Illumination Algorithm Applied to Panel Multi-Axis Rotation

This paper firstly introduces the importance of satellite illumination analysis in aerospace fields and points out that illumination conditions will influence the design of shape of satellite body and the installation of satellite equipments. Then, it discusses two methods for analyzing satellite solar-panel shadow and illumination conditions: ray tracing illumination algorithm and polyhedral mesh contour edge projection algorithm and compares their efficiency and feasibility. We designed solar panel single-axis rotation experiment to validate the proposed algorithm. The experimental results show that contour edge projection algorithm has fine accuracy and costs less time.