Controlled inertia tensor of a transformable spacecraft

Abstract

A simplified model of a transformable spacecraft is considered, including a rod-type transformation mechanism with movable weights. The mechanism can be used to adapt the dynamic properties of the spacecraft to the environment or the operating conditions of on-board systems, for example, to counter the moments of external disturbances during attitude control and angular stabilization. By changing the position of the transformation mechanism, the spacecraft inertia tensor can be put in diagonal form, which makes it possible to exclude the force interconnections between the channels and to eliminate the constant component of the gravitational moment. For a simplified model of the transformation mechanism, we establish the analytical dependence of the components of the inertia tensor on the parameters determining the position of the transformation mechanism. It is shown that by adjusting the moving mass, which is 0.5% of the entire spacecraft mass, we obtain the spacecraft configuration that ensures the diagonality of the inertia tensor.