Solar Torque Management for the Near Earth Asteroid Scout CubeSat Using Center of Mass Position Control

Orphee, Juan ; Heaton, Andrew ; Diedrich, Ben ; Stiltner, Brandon C

关键词: SOLAR SAILS;    TORQUE;    NEA SCOUT;    MOMENTUM;    AUTONOMY;    ATTITUDE CONTROL;    CENTER OF MASS;    CUBESATS;    AVIONICS;    CONTROL SYSTEMS DESIGN;    COMPUTER AIDED DESIGN;    REACTION WHEELS;    DEEP SPACE;    STAR TRACKERS;   

RP-ID  :  M17-6378

学科分类：航空航天科学

美国|英语

来源: NASA Technical Reports Server

【 摘 要 】

A novel mechanism, the Active Mass Translator (AMT), has been developed for the NASA Near Earth Asteroid (NEA) Scout mission to autonomously manage the spacecraft momentum. The NEA Scout CubeSat will launch as a secondary payload onboard Exploration Mission 1 of the Space Launch System. To accomplish its mission, the CubeSat will be propelled by an 86 square-meter solar sail during its two-year journey to reach asteroid 1991VG. NEA Scout's primary attitude control system uses reaction wheels for holding attitude and performing slew maneuvers, while a cold gas reaction control system performs the initial detumble and early trajectory correction maneuvers. The AMT control system requirements, feedback architecture, and control performance will be presented. The AMT reduces the amount of reaction control propellant needed for momentum management and allows for smaller capacity reaction wheels suitable for the limited 6U spacecraft volume. The reduced spacecraft mass allows higher in-space solar sail acceleration, thus reducing time-of-flight. The reduced time-of-flight opens the range of possible missions, which is limited by the lifetime of typical non-radiation tolerant CubeSat avionics exposed to the deep-space environment.