Abstract This study analyzes for the first time the interaction between a rigid and a deformable vehicle in formation. In this paper we investigate the interaction between an orbiting system of two tethered spacecraft and a single separated spacecraft. This problem arises when a distributed sensor array formed by connected vehicles is being commanded to reconfigure from a remote location by another remote vehicle. In another example, a free-flying robotic inspector vehicle flies around a deployed large space structure, such as a tethered spacecraft, deployed membrane or solar reflector, with the intent of monitoring the structural integrity of the larger vehicle prior to docking and possibly servicing it. This paper points out that even if the additional internal dynamics of the system caused by flexibility is considered, high pointing precision can be achieved when a fictitious rigid frame is used to track the tethered system. Even higher precision can be achieved when one specific point on the deformable structure is directly tracked. The results show that accuracy to the sub centimeter level or less in relative positioning and to the arc second level in relative angle can also be achieved with this novel architecture.
Dynamics and Control of Novel Orbiting Formations with Internal Dynamics
2003
Article (Journal)
English
Dynamics and Control of Novel Orbiting Formations with Internal Dynamics
Online Contents | 2003
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Springer Verlag | 2003
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AIAA | 2004
|AIAA-2004-5134 Dynamics of Earth Orbiting Formations
British Library Conference Proceedings | 2004
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