Modeling and Pointing Performance Analysis of Disturbance-Free-Payload System With Flexible Umbilical Connection

Abstract

Disturbance-Free-Payload is a novel spacecraft architecture proposed to achieve perfect vibration isolation performance of space applications. In this paper, the object under study is a DFP system in which a flexible umbilical connection between the support module (SM) and the payload module (PM) is introduced for data, power and fluid transfer. Bead model accounting for properties of mass and flexibility, is utilized to model the flexible umbilical. With incorporation of bead model, six degree-of-freedom multibody rigid-flexible dynamics for the DFP system is established via Newtonian mechanics. Along with rotational coupling between solar panels and SM, translational coupling, in particular, is taken into consideration since there is a stringent requirement on relative position between PM and SM. Based on the accurate motion equations of the DFP system, simulation studies are conducted to gain insight of the impact of umbilical connection and translational coupling on pointing performance of the DFP system. Simulation results validate effectiveness of DFP configuration in isolating vibrations transmitted from SM to PM. Besides, umbilical connection plays an important part in degrading pointing performance of PM whereas it exerts little impact on SM. Moreover, translational coupling leads to significant pointing performance degradation for both PM and SM.

A Novel Disturbance-Free-Payload Satellite Design for High-Precision Collaborative Observation

“…The x-axis points toward the vernal equinox, while the y-axis is 90 • to the east in the equatorial plane. The z-axis directs along the north pole [16].…”

“…U IP in the above equation is the Earth's gravitational potential, which can be expressed as a summation of all the possible spherical harmonics [16]. In addition, M IP is the mass of PM I.…”

“…With the incorporation of a bead model and the flexible dynamics of the support module, Ref. [16] investigated the impact of umbilical and flexible dynamics on the pointing performance of the DFP system. Based on static and dynamic models of flexible cable, Ref.…”

Compound Attitude Maneuver and Collision Avoiding Control for a Novel Noncontact Close-Proximity Formation Satellite Architecture

“…By taking the advantages of the noncontact Lorentz actuator, the advanced control algorithms, such as twistor-based synchronous sliding model control, and model predictive control, have been proposed to guarantee a good performance of the stability control. The development of the noncontact closeproximity formation satellite has been greatly promoted through the above-mentioned researches [19][20][21][22][23][24]. Also, due to the advantage of the noncontact close-proximity formation satellite, the payload module can be considered the conventional satellite and there are many related researches on controller design [25,26].…”

“…(1) Compared with the previous researches on the noncontact close-proximity formation satellite in [19][20][21][22][23][24], this paper extends its advantage into the attitude maneuver operation by using compound control strategy…”