Correlation of IRTAM and FPMU data confirming the application of IRTAM to support ISS Program safety

A “Real-Time” plasma hazard assessment process was developed to support International Space Station (ISS) Program real-time decision-making providing solar array constraint relief information for Extravehicular Activities (EVAs) planning and operations. This process incorporates real-time ionospheric conditions, ISS solar arrays’ orientation, ISS flight attitude, and where the EVA will be performed on the ISS. This assessment requires real-time data that is presently provided by the Floating Potential Measurement Unit (FPMU) which measures the ISS floating potential (FP), along with ionospheric electron number density (Ne) and electron temperature (Te), in order to determine the present ISS environment. Once the present environment conditions are correlated with International Reference Ionosphere (IRI) values, IRI is used to forecast what the environment could become in the event of a severe geomagnetic storm. If the FPMU should fail, the Space Environments team needs another source of data which is utilized to support a short-term forecast for EVAs. The IRI Real-Time Assimilative Mapping (IRTAM) model is an ionospheric model that uses real-time measurements from a large network of digisondes to produce foF2 and hmF2 global maps in 15?min cadence. The Boeing Space Environments team has used the IRI coefficients produced in IRTAM to calculate the Ne along the ISS orbital track. The results of the IRTAM model have been compared to FPMU measurements and show excellent agreement. IRTAM has been identified as the FPMU back-up system that will be used to support the ISS Program if the FPMU should fail.     

航天器姿态预设性能控制方法综述

针对存在不确定惯量矩阵及其它未知不确定性(如执行器故障、航天器结构发生突变等)下的航天器姿态控制问题，综述了预设性能控制及其应用的研究进展。首先阐释了预设性能控制方法的基本内涵及其关键步骤；然后分析总结了现有航天器姿态控制以及预设性能控制研究的基本概况与发展趋势；最后面向未来复杂化、智能化的空间任务对航天器控制系统提出的新需求，提出航天器预设性能控制值得研究的问题和方向。     

Orbit determination of BDS-3 satellite based on regional ground tracking station and inter-satellite link observations

The BeiDou global navigation satellite system (BDS-3) has established the Ka-band inter-satellite link (ISL) to realize a two-way ranging function between satellites, which provides a new observation technology for the orbit determination of BDS-3 satellites. Therefore, this study presents a BDS satellite orbit determination model based on ground tracking station (GTS) observations and ISL ranging observations firstly to analyze the impact of the ISL ranging observations on the orbit determination of BDS-3 satellites. Subsequently, considering the data fusion processing, the variance component estimation (VCE) algorithm is applied to the parameter estimation process of the satellite orbit determination. Finally, using the measured data from China’s regional GTS observations and BDS-3 ISL ranging observations, the effects of ISL ranging observations on the orbit determination accuracy of BDS-3 satellites are analyzed. Moreover, the impact of the VCE algorithm on the fusion data processing is evaluated from the aspects of orbit determination accuracy, Ka-band hardware delay parameter stability, and ISL ranging observation residuals. The results show that for China’s regional GTSs, the addition of BDS-3 ISL ranging observations can significantly improve the orbit determination accuracy of BDS-3 satellites. The observed orbit determination accuracy of satellite radial component is improved from 48 cm to 4.1 cm. In addition, when the initial weight ratio between GTS observations and ISL ranging observations is not appropriate, the various indicators which include orbit determination accuracy, ISL hardware delay, and ISL observation residuals were observed to have improved after the adjustment of the VCE algorithm. These results validate the effectiveness of the VCE algorithm for the fusion data processing of the GTS observations and ISL ranging observations.     

Neural adaptive control for a ground experiment of the space proximity operation in a six-degree-of-freedom micro-gravity simulation system

In this study, a neural adaptive controller is developed for a ground experiment with a spacecraft proximity operation. As the water resistance in the experiment is highly nonlinear and can significantly affect the fidelity of the ground experiment, the water resistance must be estimated accurately and compensated using an active force online. For this problem, a novel control algorithm combined with Chebyshev Neural Networks (CNN) and an Active Disturbance Rejection Control (ADRC) is proposed. Specifically, the CNN algorithm is used to estimate the water resistance. The advantage of the CNN estimation is that the coefficients of the approximation can be adaptively changed to minimize the estimation error. Combined with the ADRC algorithm, the total disturbance is compensated in the experiment to improve the fidelity. The dynamic model of the spacecraft proximity maneuver in the experiment is established. The ground experiment of the proximity maneuver that considers an obstacle is provided to verify the efficiency of the proposed controller. The results demonstrate that the proposed method outperforms the pure ADRC method and can achieve close-to-real-time performance for the spacecraft proximity maneuver.     

Event-triggered attitude control of spacecraft

The problem of spacecraft attitude stabilization control system with limited communication and external disturbances is investigated based on an event-triggered control scheme. In the proposed scheme, information of attitude and control torque only need to be transmitted at some discrete triggered times when a defined measurement error exceeds a state-dependent threshold. The proposed control scheme not only guarantees that spacecraft attitude control errors converge toward a small invariant set containing the origin, but also ensures that there is no accumulation of triggering instants. The performance of the proposed control scheme is demonstrated through numerical simulation.     

Robust model predictive control for satellite formation keeping with eccentricity/inclination vector separation

This study presents model predictive formation control based on an eccentricity/inclination vector separation strategy. Alternative collision avoidance can be accomplished by using eccentricity/inclination vectors and adding a simple goal function term for optimization process. Real-time control is also achievable with model predictive controller based on convex formulation. Constraint-tightening approach is address as well improve robustness of the controller, and simulation results are presented to verify performance enhancement for the proposed approach.     

夜气辉对天基光学碎片探测的影响分析

设计并完成了夜气辉背景下的天基碎片观测试验，获取了综合谱段的观测数据。基于观测数据进行夜气辉的辐射特性及其对天基碎片探测的影响分析。结果表明，夜气辉辐射随纬度和高度呈现一定的分布特点，这些特点均符合夜气辉的理论分布规律。在约90 km处辐射最强，亮度可达到单位积分时间每平方角秒近15星等，这对恒星及碎片提取概率影响较大，其中，13等星的提取概率仅为40.5%。     

Spacecraft formation flying control around L2 sun-earth libration point using on–off SDRE approach

In this paper, on–off SDRE control approach is presented for spacecraft formation flying control around sun-earth L2 libration point. Orbits around libration points are significant targets for many space missions mainly because of efficient fuel consumption. Furthermore, less propellant usage can be achieved by considering optimal control approaches in spacecraft formation flying control design. Among various nonlinear and optimal control methods, SDRE has shown to be a popular controller in various missions due to the privileges including efficiency, accuracy and robustness. The spacecraft are assumed to have on–off thrusters as actuators. It requires them to be fed with a sequence of on–off pulses which is regarded as a challenge for spacecraft designers. Hence, the main contribution of this paper is designing an on–off SDRE approach for the formation flight around sun-earth L2 point with uncertainty with energy and accuracy considerations. Including on–off input as a constraint is not feasible for SDRE implementation because it makes the system non-affine. An alternative is utilizing an integral action technique and an auxiliary control to make the system affine which leads to on–off SDRE approach. It has also been shown that the proposed method is robust against parametric uncertainties of the states. Present study aims to design an energy-beneficial, simple and attractive controller for a complex nonlinear system with on–off inputs and uncertainty in CRTBP. Simulation results show that the on–off SDRE control could provide the formation flight around L2 point with high accuracy using less energy consumption.     

航天器近距离交会的固定时间终端滑模控制

针对航天器近距离交会段的位置姿态耦合控制问题，假设航天器受外界干扰且目标航天器存在空间自由翻滚情形时，基于固定时间概念设计了一种六自由度位姿终端滑模自适应控制器，通过引入显含正弦函数的切换项来避免奇异问题。此外所设计的控制器含双幂次项，不仅能全局提高姿态和位置的跟踪速度及精度，还能估计系统稳定所需的时间上界，且该上界与状态初始值无关。基于Lyapunov方法分析了闭环系统的固定时间稳定性。仿真结果表明，该控制器能快速实现对航天器近距离交会时相对位置和姿态的控制，具有较高的精度和良好的干扰抑制能力。     

Novel finite-time attitude control of postcapture spacecraft with input faults and quantization

This paper investigates a novel finite-time attitude control method for the postcapture spacecraft with an unknown captured space target in the presence of input faults and quantization. First, a quasi fixed-time convergent performance function is developed to quantitatively characterize the attitude tracking performance. Then, a backstepping prescribed performance attitude controller is devised via using integral barrier Lyapunov function. Compared with the existing works, the fractional state feedback and discontinuous controller is directly avoided to achieve the fixed-time convergence rate. Namely, the proposed fixed-time controller is easily achieved online. Finally, two groups of illustrative examples are organized to validate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed control method.