Dynamics and Control for Attitude Maneuver of Tethered Formation Based Spinning Solar Sail Using Variable Tether Length

Paper number

IAC-07-C2.5.04

Author

Prof. Saburo Matunaga, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan

Coauthor

Mr. Hiroki Ashida, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan

Year

2007

Abstract

Solar sail craft is one of challenging technologies for deep space exploration and has been attracted many researchers in the world. In Japan, some types of spinning solar sail are being investigated and the authors have proposed a tethered formation based spinning solar sail, in which its membrane deployment is quasi-statically conducted using length variation of tethers connecting subsatellites. The authors have studied the membrane dynamics during deployment using roller mechanisms by numerical simulations as well as by hardware experiments.

In this paper, attitude maneuver of the solar sail is investigated, which is one of challenging issues for solar sails. For the proposed solar sail type, the author propose a new method of generating a torque for the attitude maneuver, that is CP–CM offset using tether length variation control, where CP means the center of pressure due to solar radiation and CM means the center of mass in the system. It is expected that appropriate synchronized tether length changing with spin rate makes a change of membrane position (or CP) relatively to CM.

The paper deals with numerical simulations for dynamic and control of the membrane, the tethers and the subsatellites during the tether length change. In the simulations, an analytical model of multiple mass-spring-damper is used for the membrane and the tethers, and the stability and the formed CM-CP offset are investigated. Also, attitude maneuver simulations are conducted using a 70m scaled solar sail and the results are shown.

Abstract document

IAC-07-C2.5.04.pdf

Manuscript document

IAC-07-C2.5.04.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).

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