Solar Cruiser is a small satellite Technology Demonstration Mission (TDM) to mature solar sail propulsion technology using a solar sail larger than 1600 square meters, demonstrating performance as a propulsion system and a stable pointing platform for science observations in an artificial halo orbit sunward of the Sun-Earth Lagrange Point 1 (sub-L1). For the “sailcraft” to meet mission ob- jectives, there are several unique attitude control challenges that the Attitude De- termination and Control System (ADCS) must overcome. Large disturbance tor- ques, primarily due to sail deformations coupled with off-sun pointing angles, make it more difficult to maintain adequate controls performance and manage accumulated momentum on the control actuators. The large-amplitude, low- frequency flexible body modes of the sail, in concert with noisy sensors and ac- tuators, make it challenging to mitigate control-structure interactions and main- tain fine pointing capabilities. Stability and control performance during sail de- ployment is complicated by rapidly and widely varying inertias. The Solar Cruiser ADCS effectively addresses these challenges using a simple, traditional control system – including momentum management actuators that use bang- bang control to constrain internal accumulated momentum, a low-pass controls filter and an attitude determination Kalman Filter (KF) that blends multiple star tracker solutions, and a reaction wheel assembly (RWA) with controller gains tuned to specific configurations or inertias. Solar Cruiser’s attitude control ap- proach, and lessons learned from its development, establishes a state of the art of high value to future solar sail missions and other small spacecraft with large de- ployable structures operating in deep space.


    Access

    Access via TIB

    Check availability in my library


    Export, share and cite



    Title :

    Attitude Control Approach for Solar Cruiser, a Large, Deep Space Solar Sail


    Contributors:

    Conference:

    45th Annual AAS Guidance, Navigation and Control (GN&C) Conference ; 2023 ; Breckenridge, CO, US


    Type of media :

    Conference paper


    Type of material :

    No indication


    Language :

    English




    Attitude Control Approach for Solar Cruiser, a Large, Deep Space Solar Sail

    Danny Tyler / Ben Diedrich / Ben Gauvain et al. | NTRS


    Attitude Control Approach for Solar Cruiser, a Large, Deep Space Solar Sail

    D. Tyler / B. Diedrich / B. Gauvain et al. | NTIS | 2023


    Attitude Control Approach for Solar Cruiser, a Large, Deep Space Solar Sail

    D. Tyler / B. Diedrich / B. Gauvain et al. | NTIS | 2023


    Attitude Control System for the Solar Cruiser and Future Solar Sail Missions

    K. Clements / D. Tyler / B. Diedrich et al. | NTIS | 2021


    Attitude Control System for the Solar Cruiser and Future Solar Sail Missions

    Keith Clements / Daniel Tyler / Benjamin Diedrich et al. | NTRS