Deorbiter CubeSat mission design

This paper presents the mission design for a CubeSat-based active debris removal approach intended for transferring sizable debris objects from low-Earth orbit to a deorbit altitude of 100 km. The mission consists of a mothership spacecraft that carries and deploys several debris-removing nanosatellites, called Deorbiter CubeSats. Each Deorbiter is designed based on the utilization of an eight-unit CubeSat form factor and commercially-available components with significant flight heritage. The mothership spacecraft delivers Deorbiter CubeSats to the vicinity of a predetermined target debris, through performing a long-range rendezvous maneuver. Through a formation flying maneuver, the mothership then performs in-situ measurements of debris shape and orbital state. Upon release from the mothership, each Deorbiter CubeSat proceeds to performing a rendezvous and attachment maneuver with a debris object. Once attached to the debris, the CubeSat performs a detumbling maneuver, by which the residual angular momentum of the CubeSat-debris system is dumped using Deorbiter’s onboard reaction wheels. After stabilizing the attitude motion of the combined Deorbiter-debris system, the CubeSat proceeds to performing a deorbiting maneuver, i.e., reducing system’s altitude so much so that the bodies disintegrate and burn up due to atmospheric drag, typically at around 100 km above the Earth surface. The attitude and orbital maneuvers that are planned for the mission are described, both for the mothership and Deorbiter CubeSat. The performance of each spacecraft during their operations is investigated, using the actual performance specifications of the onboard components. The viability of the proposed debris removal approach is discussed in light of the results.     

Detumbling strategy based on friction control of dual-arm space robot for capturing tumbling target

The rotational motion of a tumbling target brings great challenges to space robot on successfully capturing the tumbling target. Therefore, it is necessary to reduce the target’s rotation to a rate at which capture can be accomplished by the space robot. In this paper, a detumbling strategy based on friction control of dual-arm space robot for capturing tumbling target is proposed. This strategy can reduce the target’s rotational velocity while maintaining base attitude stability through the establishment of the rotation attenuation controller and base attitude adjustment controller. The rotation attenuation controller adopts the multi-space hybrid impedance control method to control the friction precisely. The base attitude adjustment controller applies the dual-arm extended Jacobian matrix to stabilize the base attitude. The main contributions of this paper are as follows: (1) The compliant control method is adopted to achieve a precise friction control, which can reduce the target angular velocity steadily; (2) The dual-arm extended Jacobian matrix is applied to stabilize the base attitude without affecting the target capture task; (3) The detumbling strategy of dual-arm space robot is designed considering base attitude stabilization, realizing coordinated planning of the base attitude and the arms. The strategy is verified by a dual-arm space robot with two 7-DOF (degrees of freedom) arms. Simulation results show that, target with a rotation velocity of 20 (°)/s can be effectively controlled to stop within 30 s, and the final deflection of the base attitude is less than 0.15° without affecting the target capture task, verifying the correctness and effectiveness of the strategy. Except to the tumbling target capture task, the control strategy can also be applied to other typical on-orbit operation tasks such as space debris removal and spacecraft maintenance.     

冗余空间机械臂抓捕自旋卫星后的消旋控制

旨在提出一种运动学冗余空间机器人抓捕自旋卫星后的消旋策略和协调控制方法。首先,给出运动学冗余空间机器人捕获目标后的动力学模型,作为协调控制器设计基础。然后,基于四阶Bézier曲线和满足特定约束的自适应微分进化(Differential Evolution, DE)算法提出抓捕后的最优消旋与路径规划策略,最优消旋策略中同时考虑对消旋时间和控制力矩进行优化。提出一种跟踪所设计参考轨迹的协调控制方法,调整基座的姿态达到期望值。所提方法有效地衰减了自旋卫星的初始角速度,同时实现对基座姿态的控制。文末给出利用7 DOF冗余空间机械臂消除目标自旋运动的仿真结果,表明所提方法的有效性。     

A deorbiter CubeSat for active orbital debris removal

This paper introduces a mission concept for active removal of orbital debris based on the utilization of the CubeSat form factor. The CubeSat is deployed from a carrier spacecraft, known as a mothership, and is equipped with orbital and attitude control actuators to attach to the target debris, stabilize its attitude, and subsequently move the debris to a lower orbit where atmospheric drag is high enough for the bodies to burn up. The mass and orbit altitude of debris objects that are within the realms of the CubeSat’s propulsion capabilities are identified. The attitude control schemes for the detumbling and deorbiting phases of the mission are specified. The objective of the deorbiting maneuver is to decrease the semi-major axis of the debris orbit, at the fastest rate, from its initial value to a final value of about 6471?km (i.e., 100?km above Earth considering a circular orbit) via a continuous low-thrust orbital transfer. Two case studies are investigated to verify the performance of the deorbiter CubeSat during the detumbling and deorbiting phases of the mission. The baseline target debris used in the study are the decommissioned KOMPSAT-1 satellite and the Pegasus rocket body. The results show that the deorbiting times for the target debris are reduced significantly, from several decades to one or two years.     

空间非合作目标物柔性捕获技术进展

分类探讨了近年来出现的多种空间柔性捕获技术的原理及性能特点,给出了一些具有代表性的案例,结果表明：空间绳系捕获技术在理论及试验研究方面都相对成熟,是未来行之有效、可工程实现的柔性捕获方式之一。重点针对空间非合作目标物捕获中容易出现的翻滚问题,对比分析现有的几种常用的接触式消旋方法,分析表明能同时实现捕获+消旋的一步式消旋法更具有应用前景。以空间绳系捕获技术作为空间柔性捕获的代表,对其捕获后的空间绳系组合体动力学模型建立过程中的系绳模型进行了综述,指出了各种系绳模型的优缺点及适用条件。对系绳控制机构进行了分类综述,给出了设计系绳控制机构需重点关注的问题。最后对空间绳系捕获技术的发展方向做了展望。     

CubeSats detumbling using only embedded asymmetric magnetorquers

After deployment from a rocket, a CubeSat is detumbled using magnetorquer rods bringing the norm to the point where the reaction wheels take over to reduce the angular velocity to null. Therefore, utilizing reaction wheels for satellite detumbling at higher initial velocities is vital but they are heavy and occupy significant space on a spacecraft having challenging control. To address this challenge, this paper features a disruptive approach that conducts the control only by the PCB-integrated magnetorquers with various geometries using a diverse non-unity track width ratio. The trace widths are parametrized such that the optimal torque to power dissipation ratio is investigated. The optimizations are then simulated for various geometric distributions and validated through comprehensive measurement setups that establish a framework for selecting the best-case coil configuration according to mission requirements. The detumbling rates of multiple asymmetric coil configurations are compared with the embedded designs in published literature and state of the art. It is found that the proposed asymmetric embedded magnetorquers can detumble the vehicle at high initial angular velocities. Lastly, the simulation results of thermal analysis are validated for selecting the application-specific optimal coils configuration. At the end, the proposed system is compared with the embedded magnetorquers available in the literature and commercial attitude control systems.