Abstract
This thesis investigates novel analytical models for a fixed-angle solar sail in a heliocentric three-dimensional orbit. The models presented here build on previous work with the hodograph transformation and adds a kinematic representation of the out-of-plane components. Rotational symmetry is used to both reduce the solution space and enable an analytic model of the inclination, longitude of ascending node and true latitude to be derived. Orbits transfers are shown to be analytically solvable using this model and are also presented here. The inclination is then shown to exhibit two distinct short term behaviours which are described as either converging or diverging. A region in the two-dimensional phase space was then computed that defined the global short term inclination evolution through the intersection of the converging and diverging behaviours. Finally an analytical asymptotic analysis is performed on the orbital angles and the inclination is shown to have an unexpected oscillation. The time period of this and the existence of equilibrium points are also demonstrated.