Closed-loop distance-keeping for long-term satellite cluster flight

Cluster flight is a term used for describing multiple satellites that are being held within pre-defined minimum and maximum distances for long time intervals, possibly the entire mission. This technology is required for a myriad of space architectures and missions, including disaggregated space architectures. Whereas the literature is abundant with works on control laws for satellite formation flying, there are only a handful of works on control of cluster flight. The purpose of the current work is to develop a cluster flight control algorithm, which is able to keep the satellites of the cluster within pre-specified minimum and maximum distances, while utilizing small amounts of propellant. The newly developed algorithm relies on the natural inter-satellite distance dynamics. The algorithm incorporates realistic mission constraints, such as constant-magnitude thrust, and is implemented in feedback form, steering the mean elements to judiciously selected reference values. Simulations indicate that a few tens of grams of propellent are sufficient for operating a cluster flight mission in excess of 1 year, using low specific-impulse thrusters.     

Effects of uncertainties and flexible dynamic contributions on the control of a spacecraft full-coupled model

One of the most important problems for performing a good design of the spacecraft attitude control law is connected to its robustness when some uncertainty parameters are present on the inertial and/or on the elastic characteristics of a satellite. These uncertainties are generally intrinsic on the modeling of complex structures and in the case of large flexible structures they can be also attributed to secondary effects associated to the elasticity. One of the most interesting issues in modeling large flexible space structures is associated to the evaluation of the inertia tensor which in general depends not only on the geometric ‘fixed’ characteristic of the satellite but also on its elastic displacements which of course in turn modify the ‘shape’ of the satellite. Usually these terms can be considered of a second order of magnitude if compared with the ones associated to the rigid part of a structure. However the increasing demand on the dimension of satellites due to the presence for instance of very large solar arrays (necessary to generate power) and/or large antennas has the necessity to investigate their effects on their global dynamic behavior in more details as a consequence. In the present paper a methodology based on classical Lagrangian approach coupled with a standard Finite Element tool has been used to derive the full dynamic equations of an orbiting flexible satellite under the actions of gravity, gravity gradient forces and attitude control. A particular attention has been paid to the study of the effects of flexibility on the inertial terms of the spacecraft which, as well known, influence its attitude dynamic behavior. Furthermore the effects of the attitude control authority and its robustness to the uncertainties on inertial and elastic parameters has been investigated and discussed.     

A hybrid attitude controller consisting of electromagnetic torque rods and an active fluid ring

In this paper, a novel hybrid actuation system for satellite attitude stabilization is proposed along with its feasibility analysis. The system considered consists of two magnetic torque rods and one fluid ring to produce the control torque required in the direction in which magnetic torque rods cannot produce torque. A mathematical model of the system dynamics is derived first. Then a controller is developed to stabilize the attitude angles of a satellite equipped with the abovementioned set of actuators. The effect of failure of the fluid ring or a magnetic torque rod is examined as well. It is noted that the case of failure of the magnetic torque rod whose torque is along the pitch axis is the most critical, since the coupling between the roll or yaw motion and the pitch motion is quite weak. The simulation results show that the control system proposed is quite fault tolerant.     

Fractional order tension control for stable and fast tethered satellite retrieval

The retrieval of a tethered satellite system is intrinsically unstable. This paper develops a new control strategy to retrieve the tethered satellite system stably and quickly using the fractional order control theory. The governing equation of the tethered satellite system and classic linear feedback tension control law were first reviewed and examined as a benchmark. Then, a new fractional order tension control law has been to avoid the tethered satellite winds around the main satellite near the end of retrieval by existing integer order tension control laws. The newly proposed control law has been discretized and implemented by the Laplace transform and Tustin operator. Unlike the existing integer order control laws, which are based on the feedback of current state and memoryless, the fractional order control law has the memory of previous states and thus controls the tether retrieval more smoothly while maintaining the retrieving speed. The effectiveness and advantage of the new fractional order tension control law is demonstrated numerically by comparing with its integer order counterpart. The results show that the new control law not only retrieves the subsatellite without winding around the main satellite, but also provides a better control performance with smaller in-plane libration angles.     

可应用于民机空气动力设计中的数值优化方法

目前民机成功设计的一个关键要素即在设计中有效地引入计算流体力学（CFD）的模拟方法和软件,特别是具有设计能力的方法和工具。本文概要地叙述了反设计、基于CFD低可信度和高可信度模型等数值优化方法的发展和应用于民机设计的历史和现状;简单地介绍了即将举行的空气动力优化设计计算系列研讨会;重点讨论了对可应用于民机设计的基于Navier-Stokes方程解算器的OPTIMAS的数值优化方法的要求及其构造方法,并以翼身组合体整流外形和翼身融合体（BWB）外形的算例表明其有效性,说明OPTIMAS可以成为民机日常设计的方法和工具之一。     

The impact of orbital errors on the estimation of satellite clock errors and PPP

Precise satellite orbit and clocks are essential for providing high accuracy real-time PPP (Precise Point Positioning) service. However, by treating the predicted orbits as fixed, the orbital errors may be partially assimilated by the estimated satellite clock and hence impact the positioning solutions. This paper presents the impact analysis of errors in radial and tangential orbital components on the estimation of satellite clocks and PPP through theoretical study and experimental evaluation. The relationship between the compensation of the orbital errors by the satellite clocks and the satellite-station geometry is discussed in details. Based on the satellite clocks estimated with regional station networks of different sizes (∼100, ∼300, ∼500 and ∼700 km in radius), results indicated that the orbital errors compensated by the satellite clock estimates reduce as the size of the network increases. An interesting regional PPP mode based on the broadcast ephemeris and the corresponding estimated satellite clocks is proposed and evaluated through the numerical study. The impact of orbital errors in the broadcast ephemeris has shown to be negligible for PPP users in a regional network of a radius of ∼300 km, with positioning RMS of about 1.4, 1.4 and 3.7 cm for east, north and up component in the post-mission kinematic mode, comparable with 1.3, 1.3 and 3.6 cm using the precise orbits and the corresponding estimated clocks. Compared with the DGPS and RTK positioning, only the estimated satellite clocks are needed to be disseminated to PPP users for this approach. It can significantly alleviate the communication burdens and therefore can be beneficial to the real time applications.     

150kV/30kW逆变式电子束焊接高压电源设计

针对150kV/30kW电子束焊接高压电源高电压、大功率输出的要求,低压电路采用IGBT (Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor)逆变隔离直流电源与逆变全桥串联的主电路拓扑,高压电路由3组升压变压器与10倍压整流电路的串联结构并联组成;设计了高压采样电路、束流采样电路,以及双闭环控制电路.基于上述技术,实现了150kV/30kW高电压大功率输出.实验结果表明高压加速电源的输出线性度和束流输出线性度较好,同时高压稳定度和束流稳定度均在0.5%左右,能够满足电子束焊接的要求.     

载人航天器AIT中心微生物分布特征分析

为更好地控制载人航天器中的微生物水平,指导未来航天器研制中微生物控制设计,文章采用撞击法对3个载人航天器AIT中心的空气菌落数量和菌种分布特征进行了分析。厂房菌落数比较结果显示:北京AIT中心的细菌水平显著高于其他地区AIT （P<0.05）,天津AIT中心的真菌水平显著高于其他地区AIT （P<0.05）,酒泉AIT中心的总菌数在3个地区中最少（P<0.05）。厂房菌种类别比较结果显示:北京AIT中心的优势细菌为微球菌属、葡萄球菌属等,优势真菌为白假丝酵母菌;天津AIT中心的优势细菌为芽胞杆菌属,优势真菌为曲霉属和青霉属等;酒泉AIT中心的优势细菌为芽胞杆菌属、葡萄球菌属等,优势真菌为曲霉属和球毛壳霉等。本研究表明:各AIT中心的空气微生物分布具有明显的地区差异,这不仅与不同AIT中心所在地的气候特征和厂房设计有关,还受到人员管理因素的影响。文章最后为我国空间站AIT中心的微生物控制设计提出了一些建议。     

Observations of non-migrating tides and ionospheric perturbations of O(D) airglow by ISUAL instrument

In this paper, we present the spatial variations of O(¹D) airglow observed by the ISUAL (Imager of Sprites and Upper Atmospheric Lightning) instrument on board the FORMOSAT-2 satellite. With a CCD camera and a 630 nm filter, ISUAL can measure global atmospheric emissions lying between the heights of 80 and 300 km. In days of 3–6 September 2008 and 25–27 February 2009, ISUAL has measured the emissions of O(¹D) airglow with results showing strong longitudinal peak-3 and peak-4 structures. The Lomb-Scargle analyses for these two cases show periods of longitudes of 120° and 90° supporting the DE2 and DE3 non-migrating tides. The 630 nm emissions are enhanced in equatorial regions and are lying along the equator. Over Africa its intensity can sometimes increase up to 80% relative to other longitudes. The perturbation is so strong that non-migrating tides are erased. A case of bimodal distribution with strong emissions at latitudes in equator and mid-latitude in geographic coordinates was observed.