Optimal control of a spinning double-pyramid Earth-pointing tethered formation

The dynamics and control of a tethered satellite formation for Earth-pointing observation missions is considered. For most practical applications in Earth orbit, a tether formation must be spinning in order to maintain tension in the tethers. It is possible to obtain periodic spinning solutions for a triangular formation whose initial conditions are close to the orbit normal. However, these solutions contain significant deviations of the satellites on a sphere relative to the desired Earth-pointing configuration. To maintain a plane of satellites spinning normal to the orbit plane, it is necessary to utilize “anchors”. Such a configuration resembles a double-pyramid. In this paper, control of a double-pyramid tethered formation is studied. The equations of motion are derived in a floating orbital coordinate system for the general case of an elliptic reference orbit. The motion of the satellites is derived assuming inelastic tethers that can vary in length in a controlled manner. Cartesian coordinates in a rotating reference frame attached to the desired spin frame provide a simple means of expressing the equations of motion, together with a set of constraint equations for the tether tensions. Periodic optimal control theory is applied to the system to determine sets of controlled periodic trajectories by varying the lengths of all interconnecting tethers (nine in total), as well as retrieval and simple reconfiguration trajectories. A modal analysis of the system is also performed using a lumped mass representation of the tethers.