Fluid ring damper for artificial gravity rotating system used for manned spacecraft

Paper number

IAC-06-C1.2.07

Author

Prof. Paolo Gasbarri, University of Rome "La Sapienza", Italy

Coauthor

Prof. Paolo Teofilatto, University of Rome "La Sapienza", Italy

Year

2006

Abstract

Long term  human missions are really challenging for the crew. For instance psychological factors, exposure to radiations and lack of gravity can   compromise     the crew health. Several remedies must be considered during long term human missions. One of this is strictly connected to physical exercise. Physical exercise is very  important to counteract the degenerating effects of lack of gravity such as osteoporosis, muscle mass reduction and disorientation. Then it can be mandatory to generate a g=1 habitat sometime during the mission.
For such reasons in the early projects of the ISS, it was proposed a rotating module to generate gravity effects by centrifugal forces. This approach was not longer pursued because of the difficulties to combine orbital and attitude manoeuvres with the gyroscopic forces induced by the rotating module.
In this paper we propose a dual spin system based on a classical rotorcraft configuration where the rotating blade-like module  generate a g=1 habitat at the tips. These “blades” are telescopic and deployed according to the crew necessity and their motion is produced by electric thrusters. The “rotor” is connected to the main spacecraft with a revolute joint that decouples the motion of the rotor with the one of the spacecraft. 
The  rotor is eventually stopped by a passive device  composed by a fluid ring damper that is locked to the rotor hub by means of a mechanical coupling.
The dynamics and effectiveness of the fluid damper is here  analysed; in particular asymptotic stability is ensured by the definition of a Lyapunov function of the complete system. The despinning time is also evaluated in different environmental conditions such as orbiting  spacecraft or interplanetary capsule. Optimal damper parameters such as fluid viscosity, ring geometry  are  determined. 

Abstract document

IAC-06-C1.2.07.pdf

Manuscript document

IAC-06-C1.2.07.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).

To get the manuscript, please contact IAF Secretariat.