초록 ▼

A spacecraft having a body, one or more appendages coupled thereto, and a controller that implements methods that rotate the one or more flexible appendages to point it (them) towards the Sun to reduce spacecraft attitude pointing disturbances and improves spacecraft attitude pointing. The steps of

A spacecraft having a body, one or more appendages coupled thereto, and a controller that implements methods that rotate the one or more flexible appendages to point it (them) towards the Sun to reduce spacecraft attitude pointing disturbances and improves spacecraft attitude pointing. The steps of the one or more appendages are timed to deadbeat the disturbance imparted to the spacecraft body. Timing of the appendage steps may be such that the periodic disturbances are phased to substantially cancel each other, or phased to decrease the magnitude of the net disturbance. The present invention also cancels solar array slew disturbances. The present invention cancels predictable disturbance torques before they produce a pointing error, improving the spacecraft pointing performance. The present invention predicts a disturbance torque exerted on the body due to the controller moving the one or more appendages, calculates a feedforward torque necessary for the controller to cancel the disturbance torque and includes the feedforward torque in the calculation of the total control torque applied to the body.

대표청구항 ▼

[ What is claimed is:] [1.]1. In a spacecraft having a body with multiple flexible appendages coupled thereto, control apparatus for moving the multiple flexible appendages, and a controller used for controlling the attitude of the body, a method comprising the steps of:predicting a disturbance torq

[ What is claimed is:] [1.]1. In a spacecraft having a body with multiple flexible appendages coupled thereto, control apparatus for moving the multiple flexible appendages, and a controller used for controlling the attitude of the body, a method comprising the steps of:predicting a disturbance torque exerted on the body due to the control apparatus moving the multiple flexible appendages;calculating a feedforward torque necessary for the controller to cancel the disturbance torque caused by moving the multiple flexible appendages; andincluding the feedforward torque in the calculation of total control torque applied to the body.