Dynamics of Membrane Deployment for Tether-Controlled Spinning Solar Sail
- Paper number
IAC-05-C1.P.16
- Author
Mr. Shinji Masumoto, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan
- Coauthor
Mr. koji nakaya, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan
- Coauthor
Mr. Masafumi Iai, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan
- Coauthor
Mr. hideyuki yabe, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan
- Coauthor
Prof. Saburo Matunaga, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan
- Year
2005
- Abstract
The authors proposed a tether-controlled spinning solar sail, a type of tethered formation flight. In one style of the system, three satellites are located on vertices of a large thin triangular membrane. The system spins up and the centrifugal forces are applied on the satellites by their mass to deploy the membrane. The satellites are connected with tethers to control the deployment and the distances between the satellites. Additionally, a membrane forwarding mechanism loaded on each satellite can form the membrane into tensed triangular shape all the time, even while deploying. In this paper, numerical simulation study and experimental evaluation on membrane deployment dynamics and control in the system are conducted. As numerical simulation, the authors apply a multi-particle model to simulate membrane dynamics behavior of the proposed deployment. In this model, mass particles are configured on fold line of membrane and connected with springs generating pulling forces only. A controlled tether is also modeled as multiple mass-spring with only pulling force. To realize membrane forwarding characteristics, some special springs, whose natural lengths are equal to zeros, are added to the membrane model. The corresponding spring constants are calculated to realize an isotropic strain. Then, the authors conduct fundamental ground experiments of the proposed membrane deployment using an experimental set-up system including two-dimensional micro-gravity simulators with gas-thrusters floating on 3m*5m flat-floor glass, tether control mechanisms, and membrane forwarding mechanisms. A virtual structure control method is applied to control the three satellites for formation flight, and a PD type control is adopted for the tether control mechanism and a PID type control for the membrane control mechanism. In the paper, numerical simulation results are compared with experiment results, the numerical simulation model is evaluated, and the feasibility of the tether-controlled spinning solar sail is shown.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-05-C1.P.16.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).
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