Finite-time asteroid hovering via multiple-overlapping-horizon multiple-model predictive control

This paper investigates the asteroid hovering problem using the Multiple-Overlapping-Horizon Multiple-Model Predictive Control method. The effectiveness of the predictive controllers in satisfying control constraints and minimizing the required control effort is making Model Predictive Control a desirable control method for asteroid exploration missions which consist of the asteroid hovering phase. However, the computational burden of Model Predictive Control is an obstacle to employing the asteroid’s complex gravitational field model. As an alternative option, the Multiple Horizon Multiple-Model Predictive Control method has been introduced previously, which could provide a solution with the less computational burden with respect to the nonlinear Model Predictive Control. It was shown that it is not necessary to deduce the exact dynamics model to predict the system’s behavior during a long period using this approach. However, the calculated control acceleration was not smooth enough because of the crisp borders of consecutive horizons, which may cause an image motion and degrades the geometric accuracy of high-resolution images in asteroid hovering missions. In this paper, the Multiple-Overlapping-Horizon Multiple-Model Predictive Control method is introduced instead to solve the problem of controlling acceleration fluctuations by overlapping consecutive horizons. Numerical simulation results are presented to validate the effectiveness of the proposed control method, and its advantage is demonstrated accordingly for the asteroid hovering problem in achieving the hovering position and velocity.     

Synergistic approach of asteroid exploitation and planetary protection

The asteroid and cometary impact hazard has long been recognised as an important issue requiring risk assessment and contingency planning. At the same time asteroids have also been acknowledged as possible sources of raw materials for future large-scale space engineering ventures. This paper explores possible synergies between these two apparently opposed views; planetary protection and space resource exploitation. In particular, the paper assumes a 5 tonne low-thrust spacecraft as a baseline for asteroid deflection and capture (or resource transport) missions. The system is assumed to land on the asteroid and provide a continuous thrust able to modify the orbit of the asteroid according to the mission objective. The paper analyses the capability of such a near-term system to provide both planetary protection and asteroid resources to Earth. Results show that a 5 tonne spacecraft could provide a high level of protection for modest impact hazards: airburst and local damage events (caused by 15–170 m diameter objects). At the same time, the same spacecraft could also be used to transport to bound Earth orbits significant quantities of material through judicious use of orbital dynamics and passively safe aero-capture manoeuvres or low energy ballistic capture. As will be shown, a 5 tonne low-thrust spacecraft could potentially transport between 12 and 350 times its own mass of asteroid resources by means of ballistic capture or aero-capture trajectories that pose very low dynamical pressures on the object.     

Solar-photon sail hovering orbits about single and binary asteroids

Solar-photon sails can be useful for missions towards and about asteroids. Indeed, for the interplanetary transfer phase, missions to asteroids often require a large variation in inclination and solar-photon sails perform very well for such high energy missions. In the same way, solar-photon sails are also expected to perform well in the phase about the asteroid. This paper studies single and binary asteroids’ hovering regions by using a sailcraft. In order to consider a sailcraft with its own mass and shape, the mutual polyhedral method (usually used to study asteroid dynamics) is used; therefore, the sailcraft is designed by means of tetrahedra. The procedure to obtain the hovering regions about a single asteroid is presented and an accurate analysis of the control variables is carried out. Moreover, control torques required to maintain hovering orbits are obtained by considering the gravitational torques acting on the sailcraft due to the asteroid. In the end, the theory for hovering orbits is extended to binary-asteroid systems and applied to the binary system 1999 KW4.     

On two kinds of intermediate orbits for asteroid explorations

In the paper, two kinds of intermediate orbits for asteroid explorations are proposed. One is around the collinear libration points of the Sun-asteroid restricted three-body problem. The other is around the asteroid itself. The first kind of intermediate orbit is applicable to asteroids with known masses, while the second is suitable for asteroids with unknown or negligible masses. Analytical solutions of these two intermediate orbits in the simplified models are introduced first, and then numerical algorithms are used to refine them to obtain the true orbits in the real force model. At last, the problem of station-keeping is addressed. The linear optimal feedback control law is used, and numerical simulations are made to both kinds of intermediate orbits. The results show that both kinds of orbits are feasible. The cost is reasonable and mainly depends on the initial insertion error.     

Design of a formation of solar pumped lasers for asteroid deflection

This paper presents the design of a multi-spacecraft system for the deflection of asteroids. Each spacecraft is equipped with a fibre laser and a solar concentrator. The laser induces the sublimation of a portion of the surface of the asteroid, and the resultant jet of gas and debris thrusts the asteroid off its natural course. The main idea is to have a formation of spacecraft flying in the proximity of the asteroid with all the spacecraft beaming to the same location to achieve the required deflection thrust. The paper presents the design of the formation orbits and the multi-objective optimisation of the formation in order to minimise the total mass in space and maximise the deflection of the asteroid. The paper demonstrates how significant deflections can be obtained with relatively small sized, easy-to-control spacecraft.     

Single crater-aided inertial navigation for autonomous asteroid landing

In this paper, a novel crater-aided inertial navigation approach for autonomous asteroid landing mission is developed. It overcomes the major deficiencies of existing approaches in the literature, which mainly focuses on the case where craters are abundant in the camera field of view. As a result, traditional crater based methods require at least three craters to achieve crater matching, which limits their application in final landing phase where craters are scarce in the camera’s field of view. In contrast, the proposed algorithm enables single crater based crater matching based on a novel 2D-3D crater re-projection model. The re-projection model adopts inertial measurements as a reference, and re-projects the 3D crater model onto descent images to achieve the matching to its counterpart. An asteroid landing simulation toolbox is developed to validate the performance of the proposed approach. Through comparison with the state-of-the-art local image feature and crater based navigation algorithms, the proposed approach is validated to achieve a competitive performance in terms of feature matching and pose estimation accuracy with a much lighter computational cost.     

小卫星的自适应姿态控制

分析了小卫星的姿态动力学及运动学方程；利用姿态动力学方程为一动力学参数矢量的线性函数这一事实，考虑存在参数不确定性，提出了一种自适应控制方法；证明了这种方法可以保证控制系统全局渐近稳定。仿真结果验证了该方法的有效性。     

Adaptive predefined-time control for liquid-filled flexible spacecraft attitude stabilization during orbit maneuver

A predefined-time attitude stabilization for complex structure spacecraft with liquid sloshing and flexible vibration is investigated under input saturation during orbital maneuver. First, the attitude dynamics model of liquid-filled flexible spacecraft is constructed. Meanwhile, the influence of solar panel vibration and liquid sloshing is treated as a disturbance in the controller design. Next, an adaptive predefined-time control scheme is proposed by applying sliding mode control theory. A predefined-time convergent sliding surface and reaching law are designed to ensure the predefined-time fast convergence rate. Furthermore, a novel adaptive algorithm is developed to handle the disturbances from liquid sloshing and flexible vibration, ensuring that the system converges to a small neighborhood of the equilibrium. Additionally, a new auxiliary system is constructed to deal with the effects of input saturation. At last, one simulation case is performed to verify the feasibility and advantages of the proposed algorithm.     

Adaptive sliding mode fault-tolerant control for satellite attitude tracking system

In this paper, an adaptive modified sliding mode control approach is developed for attitude tracking of a nano-satellite with three magnetorquers and one reaction wheel. A sliding variable is chosen based on finite-time convergence of the nano-satellite attitude tracking error and avoiding the singularity of the control signal. The control gain of the proposed method is developed adaptively to reduce the tracking error and improve the closed-loop control performance. The sliding variable and adaptive parameter are also employed in the reaching phase of the control law to decrease the chattering phenomenon. In addition, the finite-time convergence of attitude variables in the presence of actuator faults, inertia uncertainty, and external disturbances is proved using the extended Lyapunov theorem. The simulations are conducted to evaluate the performance of the proposed method according to different evaluation criteria. Monte Carlo simulations are also used to survey the reliability of the system in the presence of the mentioned condition.     

空间机器人的目标捕获自适应控制

首先推导了基座姿态受控空间机器人系统运动学关系,得到了广义雅可比矩阵。根据目标的运动来规划机械臂末端在惯性空间的期望轨迹。对机器人动力学和运动学关系式进行线性参数比,分别对动力学待估参数和运动学待估参数设计在线修正律,在关节空间采用自适应控制。对于存在动力学参数不确知的机器人系统,算法保证了系统的渐近稳定,在成目标捕获任务的同时,控制基座姿态保持在期望范围之内。以平面两关节空间机器人系统为对象进行了仿真,结果表明了算法的可行性和有效性。     

一类空间机械臂的复合自适应控制

对于本体姿态受控而位置不受控的空间机械臂系统,其自适应控制通常是从跟踪误差中获取有关参数信息。但除了跟踪误差外,估计误差中也含有参数信息。该文首先分析了一类空间机械臂系统的动力学特性,建立了系统的估计模型;提出了一种复合自适应控制方法,其参数适应律由估计误差和跟踪误差共同决定;证明了这种自适应方法不仅可维持自适应控制系统的全局稳定,而且还可快速收敛和减少跟踪误差。仿真结果也验证了这一特点。     

Adaptive sliding mode control of spacecraft attitude-orbit dynamics on SE(3)

In this paper, to solve the problem of parameters uncertainty in spacecraft tracking control, an adaptive controller based on sliding mode is proposed for the relative spacecraft attitude-orbit dynamics on the Lie group SE(3). The dynamic equations of relative attitude orbit error for two spacecraft are established in the framework of Lie group SE(3). Considering the uncertainty of spacecraft parameters, a formal decomposition of known and unknown parameters, the state variables and control variables is firstly made in the original system. An online estimator is designed to evaluate the unknown parameters. A sliding mode controller is developed to actuate the spacecraft to track the target spacecraft. Then a Lyapunov function of tracking error and parameters estimated error is designed to prove the stability of the closed-loop system. Finally, the simulation results and analysis are presented to verify the effectiveness and feasibility of the proposed method.     

Economic assessment of high-thrust and solar-sail propulsion for near-earth asteroid mining

Asteroid mining has the potential to greatly reduce the cost of in-space manufacturing, production of propellant for space transportation and consumables for crewed spacecraft, compared to launching the required resources from the Earth’s deep gravity well. This paper discusses the top-level mission architecture and trajectory design for these resource-return missions, comparing high-thrust trajectories with continuous low-thrust solar-sail trajectories. The paper focuses on maximizing the economic Net Present Value, which takes the time-cost of finance into account and therefore balances the returned resource mass and mission duration. The different propulsion methods are compared in terms of maximum economic return and sets of attainable target asteroids. Results for transporting resources to geostationary orbit show that the orbital parameter hyperspace of suitable target asteroids is considerably larger for solar sails, allowing for more flexibility in selecting potential target asteroids. Also, results show that the Net Present Value that can be realized is larger when employing solar sailing instead of chemical propulsion. In addition, it is demonstrated that a higher Net Present Value can be realized when transporting volatiles to the Lunar Gateway instead of geostationary orbit. The paper provides one more step towards making commercial asteroid mining an economically viable reality by integrating trajectory design, propulsion technology and economic modelling.     

电磁航天器编队悬停鲁棒协同控制方法

针对电磁航天器编队近地轨道悬停问题,提出一种在缺少参考轨道准确信息时的协同控制方法。用TH方程描述航天器间的相对运动,选择与参考轨道同周期的圆轨道为标称轨道。将参考轨道相对于标称圆轨道的偏差、地球非球形引力、大气阻力及其他天体引力等参数单独归类,视其为不确定量,构成不确定系统。通过引入一致性理论,在电磁作用模型和动力学方程均存在不确定性的条件下,针对航天器编队悬停的目标设计了鲁棒协同控制律。考虑能量消耗最优和均衡以及轨道姿态解耦,给出了通过优化进行磁矩配置的方案。仿真结果表明,所设计的鲁棒协同控制律能够实现编队电磁航天器高精度悬停,所给出的磁矩配置方案能够实现磁矩的合理分配。      

椭圆轨道卫星空间任意位置悬停的方法

对任务星施加持续的控制加速度,使其在飞行过程中相对于目标卫星的空间位置保持不变,即实现任意位置悬停飞行。通过对任务星与目标星的相对运行分析和重力差异补偿分析,给出了在飞行过程中任务星相对于运行在椭圆轨道上的目标星实现任意位置悬停所需的径向、切向和法向控制加速度公式。最后对典型悬停飞行过程进行了动力学仿真,并对不同悬停飞行任务的能量消耗进行了对比分析,表明在一段时间内对任务星进行轨道悬停是可行的。     

The effect of a rocky terrain for CubeSat landing on asteroid surfaces

The paper describes a general modelling procedure to build a simulation tool to investigate contact motion of a CubeSat on an asteroid surface. We investigate landing performance and landing success for the case of elastic rocky terrain and flat surfaces. As a case study, we focus on the disposal of ESA’s Hera Milani CubeSat by landing on the moon of Didymos binary asteroid system. The simulation environment includes the modelling of real shape and 6-DOF motion of the lander, the shape-based gravity models of Didymos and Dimorphos and rocks on surface, that are generated as physical obstacles. Trends and estimates on the performance of the landing phase and the most relevant effects on the outcome of the soil interaction process, are inferred. The statistical results on settling time, dispersion area and motion characteristics, such as number of bounces, show and quantify the effect of rocks on a successful passive and permanent landing.     

用于卫星姿态机动控制的一种自适应模糊控制器

卫星的姿态机动控制要求机动快速和较强鲁棒性.纯模糊控制器响应快、鲁棒性好,能够方便地应用人的智能,但是模糊规则库的构建需要预先获取足够的语言信息.从Lyapunov函数出发设计了一个稳定的直接型自适应模糊姿态机动控制系统,控制器能够在初始语言信息很少的条件下通过自适应律调整语言信息参数而得到合适的模糊规则,使控制器具有更强的适应能力.数学仿真比较了在完全没有语言信息和有一条语言信息的情况下控制系统的表现,表明仅有一条语言信息时控制系统性能就能够显示得十分出色.最后,仿真结果证实了自适应模糊控制器良好的鲁棒性.     

Adaptive neural network control of nonlinear systems with unknown dynamics

In this study, an adaptive neural network control approach is proposed to achieve accurate and robust control of nonlinear systems with unknown dynamics, wherein the neural network is innovatively used to learn the inverse problem of system dynamics with guaranteed convergence. This study focuses on the following three contributions. First, the considered system is transformed into a multi-integrator system using an input–output linearization technique, and an extended state observation technique is used to identify the transformed states. Second, an iterative control learning algorithm is proposed to achieve the neural network training, and stability analysis is given to prove that the network’s predictions converge to ideal control inputs with guaranteed convergence. Third, an adaptive neural network controller is developed by combining the trained network and a proportional-integral controller, and the long-standing challenge of model-based methods for control determination of unknown dynamics is resolved. Simulation results of a virtual control mission and an aerospace altitude tracking mission are provided to substantiate the effectiveness of the proposed techniques and illustrate the adaptability and robustness of the proposed controller.     

Rapid design and optimization of low-thrust rendezvous/interception trajectory for asteroid deflection missions

Asteroid deflection techniques are essential in order to protect the Earth from catastrophic impacts by hazardous asteroids. Rapid design and optimization of low-thrust rendezvous/interception trajectories is considered as one of the key technologies to successfully deflect potentially hazardous asteroids. In this paper, we address a general framework for the rapid design and optimization of low-thrust rendezvous/interception trajectories for future asteroid deflection missions. The design and optimization process includes three closely associated steps. Firstly, shape-based approaches and genetic algorithm (GA) are adopted to perform preliminary design, which provides a reasonable initial guess for subsequent accurate optimization. Secondly, Radau pseudospectral method is utilized to transcribe the low-thrust trajectory optimization problem into a discrete nonlinear programming (NLP) problem. Finally, sequential quadratic programming (SQP) is used to efficiently solve the nonlinear programming problem and obtain the optimal low-thrust rendezvous/interception trajectories. The rapid design and optimization algorithms developed in this paper are validated by three simulation cases with different performance indexes and boundary constraints.     

A fast Chebyshev polynomial method for calculating asteroid gravitational fields using space partitioning and cosine sampling

This paper presents a computationally fast method for solving gravitational accelerations near irregularly-shaped asteroids. This method is based on analytical three-dimensional Chebyshev polynomial approximation of the polyhedral gravity. For the purpose of improving the approximation accuracy, space partitioning schemes based on practical flight zones is used to avoid interpolation the whole space around the target asteroid. Specifically, a minimum ellipsoid close to the asteroid surface is defined to select the space for surrounding trajectories with safe distance and a cone connected to the surface is defined to select the space for descent trajectories. Moreover, interpolation points are sampled in a cosine sampling fashion according to the Chebyshev-Gauss-Lobatto nodes and a radial adaption technique. The performance of different space partitioning schemes is analyzed. The effectiveness of the proposed method is validated through simulations of solving gravitational accelerations at the test points near different shaped asteroids 1996 HW1, 433 Eros, 25143 Itokawa and 101955 Bennu.