Patent ID: 8571730
Filing Date: 2013-10-29
Classification: B64G

Abstract:
1. An attitude control device for an in-space propellant depot comprising a body of in-space propellant depot including a propellant tank for holding a propellant supplied to other spacecrafts, a reaction wheel for changing an attitude angle of the in-space propellant depot, an electronic system for implementing a plurality of functions such as propellant supply and change of attitude angle, an enclosure holding the propellant tank, the reaction wheel and the electronic system; and a plurality of solar panels mechanically attached to the body of in-space propellant depot and supplying electric energy converted from solar energy to the electronic system, the attitude control device comprising: a propellant height sensor measuring a height of a propellant in the propellant tank and sending a measured propellant height; a sloshing frequency calculation unit calculating a sloshing frequency based on the measured propellant height in the propellant tank and gravitational acceleration acting on the in-space propellant depot where the in-space propellant depot is deployed, and sending the sloshing frequency; an attitude angle sensor measuring the attitude angle of the in-space propellant depot and sending it as a measured attitude angle of the in-space propellant depot; a frequency analysis unit conducting a frequency analysis of the measured attitude angle of the in-space propellant depot, generating its frequency spectra, and sending a plurality of frequency spectra; a dominant flexible mode calculation unit calculating a dominant flexible mode, and sending it where the dominant flexible mode is a flexible mode of the in-space propellant depot, a flexible mode natural frequency of which is closest to either a spectral frequency of one of the plurality of frequency spectra with a largest spectral amplitude if only one such spectral frequency exists; a smaller one of two spectral frequencies of one of two frequency spectra with a largest spectral amplitude if two such spectral frequencies exist, and a larger one of two spectral frequencies is odd-number times as large as the smaller one of two spectral frequencies; or a spectral frequency of one of three frequency spectra with a largest spectral amplitude (hereinafter referred to as a “dominant spectral frequency”), spectral frequencies of others being larger than the dominant spectral frequency by the sloshing frequency, and an absolute value of a difference between the dominant spectral frequency and the sloshing frequency, if three such spectral frequencies exist; a modal coordinate calculation unit calculating a modal coordinate of the dominant flexible mode applying a modal transformation to the measured attitude angle, and sending it; a control torque parameter generator calculating a control torque parameter that is a damping ratio to be added to the dominant flexible mode adjusted to minimize the spectral amplitude of the plurality of frequency spectra of the dominant flexible mode, and sending the control torque parameter; and a control torque generator calculating a term of a control torque for reducing the spectral amplitude of the dominant flexible mode as a product of the modal coordinate, the control torque parameter and 1p element of a modal matrix of the modal transformation where p is a number of the dominant flexible mode, adding it to a control torque calculated in a previous iteration, and sending it until the spectral amplitude of all the frequency spectra no longer exceeds a predetermined value tolerable by the in-space propellant depot.