Configuration construction and attitude control method for pyramid deorbit sail

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11845573-B2
Application number	US-202217961125-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 6, 2022
Priority date	Oct 8, 2021
Publication date	Dec 19, 2023
Grant date	Dec 19, 2023

Abstract

Provided is a configuration construction and attitude control method for a pyramid deorbit sail. By taking into consideration environmental perturbation like atmospheric resistance perturbation and non-spherical earth perturbation, a dynamics model featuring three-dimensional orbit-and-attitude coupling based on position vectors and quaternion descriptions, the deorbit sail is taken as a rigid body, a spacecraft body is taken as a mass point, airflow obstruction is considered in the windward area, thereby improving the precision of the dynamics model; based on this model, the law of influence of the configuration parameters in the deorbit sail, such as a cone angle and a strut length, on the attitude stability and deorbiting efficiency of the spacecraft in different cases is analyzed, the configuration parameters of the pyramid deorbit sail system are analyzed and optimized according to the derived law, so as to obtain a pyramid deorbit sail achieving high attitude stability and high deorbiting efficiency.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A configuration construction method for a pyramid deorbit sail, comprising the following steps:
step 1, with environmental perturbation like atmospheric resistance perturbation and non-spherical earth perturbation taken into consideration, establishing a pyramid deorbit sail system-oriented dynamics model featuring three-dimensional orbit-and-attitude coupling based on position vectors and quaternion descriptions, and considering, in the pyramid deorbit sail system-oriented dynamics model featuring three-dimensional orbit-and-attitude coupling, factors such as the influence of a windward area of a sail surface in the case of airflow obstruction on atmospheric resistance exerted on the pyramid deorbit sail and the further influence of the windward area of the sail surface in the case of airflow obstruction on an orbit and an attitude of the pyramid deorbit sail so as to improve precision of the pyramid deorbit sail system-oriented dynamics model featuring three-dimensional orbit-and-attitude coupling; and
step 2, analyzing, according to a control variate method, to derive a law of influence of parameters such as a cone angle and a strut length in the pyramid deorbit sail on attitude stability and deorbiting efficiency of a spacecraft in different cases based on the pyramid deorbit sail system-oriented dynamics model featuring three-dimensional orbit-and-attitude coupling considering airflow obstruction obtained in step 1, and optimizing configuration parameters of the pyramid deorbit sail system based on the law to obtain a pyramid deorbit sail configuration achieving high attitude stability and high deorbiting efficiency and hence improved attitude stability and deorbiting efficiency of the spacecraft.

2. The configuration construction method for a pyramid deorbit sail according to claim 1 , wherein step 1 is implemented as follows:
during dynamics modeling of the pyramid deorbit sail system, the deorbit sail is taken as a rigid body, mass of struts is allocated to the thin-filmed sail surface as an equivalent form of surface density, and a spacecraft body is taken as a mass point; a pyramid deorbit sail device is installed at an o-point on the spacecraft body, and comprises a plurality of struts and a plurality of thin-filmed sail surfaces, wherein the struts are deployed and extended in an inclination direction, every two adjacent struts are connected to the triangular thin-filmed sail surface, the struts of the pyramid deorbit sail are of equal length, an included angle between each of the struts and a symmetry axis of the deorbit sail is the same, and a distance between tops of any two adjacent struts is the same; and a body coordinate system Ox b y b z b is established with the o-point as an origin, wherein a y b axis coincides with the symmetry axis of the deorbit sail and points to the spacecraft body from the deorbit sail, which is in line with the right-hand rule;
regarding a spacecraft in low earth orbit, given that environmental perturbation like atmospheric resistance perturbation and non-spherical earth perturbation are important influence factors on orbital motion of the spacecraft, a rate of change of orbital state vectors such as a geocentric distance r and a velocity v is defined in formula (1-1); for the purpose of avoiding singularity, a spacecraft attitude is described using a quaternion algorithm, as expressed in formula (1-2) and formula (1-3); torque T imparted on the spacecraft is a vector sum of control torque and environmental torque, in which the environmental torque takes into account aerodynamic torque and gravity gradient torque; formula (1) gives a pyramid deorbit sail system-oriented dynamics model featuring three-dimensional orbit-and-attitude coupling established based on position vectors and quaternion descriptions, and the spacecraft is equipped with a pyramid deorbit sail; and formula (1) consists of formula (1-1), formula (1-2) and formula (1-3);

[

r
˙

r
¨

]

=

[

v

r
¨

A

+

r
¨

U

]

(

1
-
1

)

T
=

I
⁢

ω
˙

b

+

ω
b

×
I
⁢

ω
b

(

1
-
2

)

{

q
˙

=

1
2

⁢

(

Assignees

• Beijing Institute Tech

Inventors

• Zhang Jingrui
• Zhang Ruonan
• Yang Keying
• Li Lincheng

Classifications

• B64G1/407 Primary

  Solar sailing · CPC title

• B64G1/245

  Attitude control algorithms for spacecraft attitude control · CPC title

• G05D1/0833 Primary

  using limited authority control · CPC title

• Y02T90/00

  Enabling technologies or technologies with a potential or indirect contribution to GHG emissions mitigation · CPC title