Use of solar radiation pressure to maintain a spatial satellite formation

Smirnov, Georgi; Ovchinnikov, M Y; Guerman, Anna D.

doi:10.1016/j.actaastro.2007.03.009

Cited by 16 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…Ovchinnikov and Guerman [53] extended this further to using solar sails to maintain a satellite formation in heliocentric orbit. Baoyin and Mcinnes [54] showed that artificial out of plane Lagrange point orbits could be achieved using sails.…”

Section: Solar Radiation Pressure Modeling and Controlmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Formation-Keeping Strategies At The Earth-Moon L4 Triangular Libration Point

Wong¹

2021

Preprint

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This thesis examines the use of thrusters and solar sails for spacecraft formation keeping control at the Earth-Moon L4 point. Particular emphasis was placed on the study of underactuated control, in which fewer control inputs than the system's degrees of freedom are available. A linear LQR control scheme, an integral augmented sliding mode controller and a bang-bang controller were applied to the dynamic spacecraft system. The nonlinear controllers produced errors falling with tighter tolerances than the linear controllers in the perturbed environment. Performing similarly well as the underactuated thrusters system was the solar-sails-controlled spacecraft formation using a bang-bang controller. This shows that solar sails could be a viable propellantless technique for relative control. A linear control technique was able to bound errors to within a couple of hundred metres, using a hybrid propulsion system. Of the cases studied, only the fully-actuated thrusters-based system was able to explicitly track a circular trajectory, but had [Delta]V requirement of more than 100 times greater than that needed for tracking the natural, elliptical trajectory.

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Section: Solar Radiation Pressure Modeling and Controlmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recently, the study of reconfiguration at one of the collinear libration points was completed in [ 49]. Modelling of SRP can be found in more detail in [51] and [52][53][54]. This section provides a brief overview of the SRP model used in this study, which is similar to that used in [49].…”

Section: Solar Gravitation Model Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Formation-Keeping Strategies At The Earth-Moon L4 Triangular Libration Point

Wong¹

2021

Preprint

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“…Another recent research studied SRP based tetrahedron satellite formation. This research studied the use of SRP to deploy and stabilize a three-dimensional satellite formation for a Heliocentric as well as High Earth Orbit [Smirnov et al 2007], with the diameter of the formation and the stabilization time dependent on the properties of the solar sail. Application of SRP for station-keeping of a geostationary satellite was studied by Black et al [Black et al 1968] and Circi [Circi 2005].…”

Section: Formation Flying Using Solar Radiation Pressurementioning

confidence: 99%

Control of satellites using environmental forces : aerodynamic drag / solar radiation pressure

Varma¹

2021

Preprint

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The dynamics of a satellite involves orbit and attitude motion. Both orbit and attitude motion are required to be controlled for achieving any mission objectives. This thesis examines both of these motion with a focus on formation flying and attitude stabilization using aerodynamic drag or solar radiation pressure. The concept of satellite formation flying involves the distribution of the functionality of a single satellite among several smaller, cooperative satellites. Autonomous multiple satellite formation flying space missions offer many promising possibilities for space exploration. A large quantity of fuel is typically required onboard any conventional satellite to carry out its attitude and orbital positioning, and satellite formation flying has a higher fuel requirement. As on-board fuel is a scarce commodity, it is important to have control methods requiring little or no fuel. Keeping this in mind, this thesis presents the results of using aerodynamic drag or solar radiation pressure for satellite formation flying. This methodology has potential to have significant commercial advantage as it pertains to almost negligible fuel requirements. A leader/follower formation architecture is considered for the formation flying system. The control algorithms are derived based on adaptive sliding mode control technique. Aerodynamic drag is used to accomplish multiple satellite formation flying in low Earth orbit whereas solar radiation pressure is used in geostationary orbit. Due to the nature of the aerodynamic drag, in-plane control can only be accomplished by the suitable maneuvering of the drag plates mounted on the satellites. Solar radiation pressure is able to accomplish in-plane and out-of-plane control by maneuvering of the solar flaps. Efficacy of the control methodology in performing various scenarios of formation flying including formation reconfiguration is validated by numerical simulation in both the cases. The numerical results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed control techniques for satellite formation flying using aerodynamic drag or solar radiation pressure. Formation flying accuracies of less than 5 m are achieved in both the cases. Next, this thesis investigates the use of aerodynamic drag or solar radiation pressure for satellite attitude control. In the case of the aerodynamic drag stabilized satellite, the drag plates are considered to be attached to the satellite while the solar flaps are fixed to the satellite in the case of the solar radiation pressure stabilized satellite. In both the cases, the control algorithm is developed based on adaptive sliding mode control technique. The effectiveness of this methodology is numerically evaluated under various scenarios including the pressure of failure/fault in the solar flaps or drag plates attached to the satellite. The satellite attitude is stabilized within reasonable limits in all the cases thereby demonstrating robust performance in the presence of external disturbances.

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“…Other propellantless forces such as solar radiation pressure [10][11][12], Coulomb forces [13], and the Lorentz force [14] have all been investigated for actuating satellite formation maneuvers in an attempt to achieve long-term actuation capability. An additional propellantless mechanism for generating force arises from the exchange of momentum between a charged space object and the ions and electrons of the ionosphere, which is called ionospheric drag [15].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%