A Full Disturbance Model for Reaction Wheels

Author(s):  
M. P. Le ◽  
M. H. M. Ellenbroek ◽  
R. Seiler ◽  
P. van Put ◽  
E. J. E. Cottaar

Reaction wheels are rotating devices used for the attitude control of spacecraft. However, reaction wheels also generate undesired disturbances in the form of vibrations, which may have an adverse effect on the pointing accuracy and stability of spacecraft (optical) payloads. A disturbance model for reaction wheels was developed at Moog Bradford by combining empirical and theoretical models. The empirical data is obtained from a highly accurate reaction wheel characterization test setup from the European Space Agency and includes disturbance signals of ball bearings transmitted through the structures of the reaction wheel assembly. The theoretical model is derived from the equation of motion of a rigid rotor and a disc supported by two ball bearings including static, dynamic unbalances, structural modes and gyroscopic effects of the wheel rotor. To fully model the disturbance signature of the wheel, the bearing stiffness is formulated as a function of ball pass frequency and the flexibility of the supporting structural items like the reaction wheels housing are included. Finally, the empirical model is added into the theoretical model as excitations to form a full disturbance model for reaction wheels. The resulting combined model is then validated by tests on different types of Moog Bradford reaction wheels. The validated disturbance model is used to evaluate the pointing performance of spacecraft as well as to predict micro-disturbance performance for future reaction wheel designs.

Author(s):  
Ni Li ◽  
Paolo Arguelles ◽  
Kevin Chaput ◽  
Stephen L. Kenan ◽  
Salla Kim ◽  
...  

Solar sailing is a new satellite propulsion technology using radiation pressure exerted by sunlight on a large mirrored surface. Since it does not need propellants, it is increasingly being considered by both the European Space Agency and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration for future science missions. An attitude control system is essential for a sail craft to maintain a desired orientation. IKAROS, launched in 2010, practically proved the possibility of using a solar sail as a propulsion system. However, it also showed the current sail orientation system could change the attitude very slowly, about 1 degree per day. In contrast to the existing single solar sail design, a new distributed four-sail configuration is proposed in this paper and the coordinated motion of the four sails is used to control the attitude pointing of a satellite. The feasibility and efficiency of this proposed design were assessed and concluded that it is possible to steer a CubeSat up to 1 degree in 60 seconds for either the roll or pitch axes.


1990 ◽  
Vol 123 ◽  
pp. 517-520
Author(s):  
C. Imhoff ◽  
R. Pitts ◽  
R. Arquilla ◽  
C. Shrader ◽  
M. Perez ◽  
...  

AbstractThe International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE) is a geosynchronous orbiting telescope launched by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on January 26, 1978, and operated jointly by NASA and the European Space Agency. The science instrument consists of two spectrographs which span the wavelength range of 1150 to 3200 Å and offer two dispersions with resolutions of 6 Å and 0.2 Å. The spacecraft’s attitude control system originally included an inertial reference package containing 6 gyroscopes for 3-axis stabilization. The science instrument includes a prime and redundant Field Error Sensor (FES) camera for target aquisition and offset guiding. Since launch, 4 of the 6 gyroscopes have failed. The current attitude control system utilizes the remaining 2 gyros and a Fine Sun Sensor (FSS) for 3-axis stabilization. When the next gyro fails, a new attitude control system will be uplinked which will rely on the remaining gyro and the FSS for general 3-axis stabilzation. In addition to the FSS, the FES cameras will be required to assist in maintaining fine attitude control during target aquisition. This has required thoroughly determining the characteristics of the FES cameras and the spectrograph aperture plate as well as devising new target acquisition procedures. The results of this work are presented.


Author(s):  
Onur Cakmak ◽  
Kenan Y. Sanliturk

In this paper, a dynamic model of a rotor-ball bearing system is developed in Msc. ADAMS commercial software. Contacts between the balls and the rings are modelled according to Hertzian theory. The bearing model is capable of representing the effects of bearing defects and internal clearances. When they are coupled with the rotor structures, bearings without any defect can also cause excessive vibrations due to the resonance characteristics of the system. In order to demonstrate these characteristics the rotor itself is modelled as a flexible shaft and a disc positioned at the free end of the shaft. The rotor-ball bearing model developed here is capable of representing the gyroscopic effects and the behaviour of the system under different unbalance conditions. Various case studies are performed and Campbell diagrams are obtained by using short-time Fourier transform method. A test rig consisting of two ball bearings, a shaft and a disc is also designed and developed so as to validate the theoretical model using experimental data. The test rig is developed in such a way that all of the elements are easy to assemble/disassamble, allowing quick observation of the system’s dynamic behaviour for different parameters including imbalance, internal clearance and bearing defects. Modal analysis and order tracking analysis were carried out using the test rig. Both the modal results and Campbell diagrams obtained using experimental data are compared with their theoretical counterparts. In the light of the experimental data, the theoretical model is validated for the purpose of further analyses and research.


Author(s):  
Claudio Miccoli ◽  
Alessandro Turchi ◽  
Pierre Schrooyen ◽  
Domenic D’Ambrosio ◽  
Thierry Magin

AbstractThis work deals with the analysis of the cork P50, an ablative thermal protection material (TPM) used for the heat shield of the qarman Re-entry CubeSat. Developed for the European Space Agency (ESA) at the von Karman Institute (VKI) for Fluid Dynamics, qarman is a scientific demonstrator for Aerothermodynamic Research. The ability to model and predict the atypical behavior of the new cork-based materials is considered a critical research topic. Therefore, this work is motivated by the need to develop a numerical model able to respond to this demand, in preparation to the post-flight analysis of qarman. This study is focused on the main thermal response phenomena of the cork P50: pyrolysis and swelling. Pyrolysis was analyzed by means of the multi-physics Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) code argo, developed at Cenaero. Based on a unified flow-material solver, the Volume Averaged Navier–Stokes (VANS) equations were numerically solved to describe the interaction between a multi-species high enthalpy flow and a reactive porous medium, by means of a high-order Discontinuous Galerkin Method (DGM). Specifically, an accurate method to compute the pyrolysis production rate was implemented. The modeling of swelling was the most ambitious task, requiring the development of a physical model accounting for this phenomenon, for the purpose of a future implementation within argo. A 1D model was proposed, mainly based on an a priori assumption on the swelling velocity and the resolution of a nonlinear advection equation, by means of a Finite Difference Method (FDM). Once developed, the model was successfully tested through a matlab code, showing that the approach is promising and thus opening the way to further developments.


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-126
Author(s):  
A. F. Purkhauser ◽  
J. A. Koch ◽  
R. Pail

Abstract The GRACE mission has demonstrated a tremendous potential for observing mass changes in the Earth system from space for climate research and the observation of climate change. Future mission should on the one hand extend the already existing time series and also provide higher spatial and temporal resolution that is required to fulfil all needs placed on a future mission. To analyse the applicability of such a Next Generation Gravity Mission (NGGM) concept regarding hydrological applications, two GRACE-FO-type pairs in Bender formation are analysed. The numerical closed loop simulations with a realistic noise assumption are based on the short arc approach and make use of the Wiese approach, enabling a self-de-aliasing of high-frequency atmospheric and oceanic signals, and a NRT approach for a short latency. Numerical simulations for future gravity mission concepts are based on geophysical models, representing the time-variable gravity field. First tests regarding the usability of the hydrology component contained in the Earth System Model (ESM) by the European Space Agency (ESA) for the analysis regarding a possible flood monitoring and detection showed a clear signal in a third of the analysed flood cases. Our analysis of selected cases found that detection of floods was clearly possible with the reconstructed AOHIS/HIS signal in 20% of the tested examples, while in 40% of the cases a peak was visible but not clearly recognisable.


1993 ◽  
Vol 137 ◽  
pp. 812-819
Author(s):  
T. Appourchaux ◽  
D. Gough ◽  
P. Hyoyng ◽  
C. Catala ◽  
S. Frandsen ◽  
...  

PRISMA (Probing Rotation and Interior of Stars: Microvariability and Activity) is a new space mission of the European Space Agency. PRISMA is currently in a Phase A study with 3 other competitors. PRISMA is the only ESA-only mission amongst those four and only one mission will be selected in Spring 1993 to become a real space mission.The goal of the Phase A study is to determine whether the payload of PRISMA can be accommodated on a second unit of the X-ray Multi-Mirror (XMM) bus; and whether the budget of the PRISMA mission can be kept below 265 MAU (’88 Economic conditions). The XMM mission is an approved cornerstone and is in a Phase A together with PRISMA.


2021 ◽  
Vol 217 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Valeria Mangano ◽  
Melinda Dósa ◽  
Markus Fränz ◽  
Anna Milillo ◽  
Joana S. Oliveira ◽  
...  

AbstractThe dual spacecraft mission BepiColombo is the first joint mission between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) to explore the planet Mercury. BepiColombo was launched from Kourou (French Guiana) on October 20th, 2018, in its packed configuration including two spacecraft, a transfer module, and a sunshield. BepiColombo cruise trajectory is a long journey into the inner heliosphere, and it includes one flyby of the Earth (in April 2020), two of Venus (in October 2020 and August 2021), and six of Mercury (starting from 2021), before orbit insertion in December 2025. A big part of the mission instruments will be fully operational during the mission cruise phase, allowing unprecedented investigation of the different environments that will encounter during the 7-years long cruise. The present paper reviews all the planetary flybys and some interesting cruise configurations. Additional scientific research that will emerge in the coming years is also discussed, including the instruments that can contribute.


2018 ◽  
Vol 616 ◽  
pp. A2 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Lindegren ◽  
J. Hernández ◽  
A. Bombrun ◽  
S. Klioner ◽  
U. Bastian ◽  
...  

Context. Gaia Data Release 2 (Gaia DR2) contains results for 1693 million sources in the magnitude range 3 to 21 based on observations collected by the European Space Agency Gaia satellite during the first 22 months of its operational phase. Aims. We describe the input data, models, and processing used for the astrometric content of Gaia DR2, and the validation of these resultsperformed within the astrometry task. Methods. Some 320 billion centroid positions from the pre-processed astrometric CCD observations were used to estimate the five astrometric parameters (positions, parallaxes, and proper motions) for 1332 million sources, and approximate positions at the reference epoch J2015.5 for an additional 361 million mostly faint sources. These data were calculated in two steps. First, the satellite attitude and the astrometric calibration parameters of the CCDs were obtained in an astrometric global iterative solution for 16 million selected sources, using about 1% of the input data. This primary solution was tied to the extragalactic International Celestial Reference System (ICRS) by means of quasars. The resulting attitude and calibration were then used to calculate the astrometric parameters of all the sources. Special validation solutions were used to characterise the random and systematic errors in parallax and proper motion. Results. For the sources with five-parameter astrometric solutions, the median uncertainty in parallax and position at the reference epoch J2015.5 is about 0.04 mas for bright (G < 14 mag) sources, 0.1 mas at G = 17 mag, and 0.7 masat G = 20 mag. In the proper motion components the corresponding uncertainties are 0.05, 0.2, and 1.2 mas yr−1, respectively.The optical reference frame defined by Gaia DR2 is aligned with ICRS and is non-rotating with respect to the quasars to within 0.15 mas yr−1. From the quasars and validation solutions we estimate that systematics in the parallaxes depending on position, magnitude, and colour are generally below 0.1 mas, but the parallaxes are on the whole too small by about 0.03 mas. Significant spatial correlations of up to 0.04 mas in parallax and 0.07 mas yr−1 in proper motion are seen on small (< 1 deg) and intermediate (20 deg) angular scales. Important statistics and information for the users of the Gaia DR2 astrometry are given in the appendices.


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