Remote Orbital Capture Using an Orbital Maneuvering Vehicle Equipped with a Multibody Grappling Arm Assembly

摘要

The problem of detumbling and despinning a freely spinning and precessing axisymmetric target satellite using an orbital maneuvering vehicle is considered. The axisymmetric orbital maneuvering vehicle is equipped with a multibody grappling arm assembly to capture the target. Counter-masses are used to maintain dynamic balancing and stability throughout the deployment of the arm and the subsequent spin-up of the grappling device prior to docking. The five-body system is modeled using Eulerian-based equations of motion developed by Hooker and Margulies. Open-loop control laws are formulated to deploy the grappling arm assembly and spin-up the grappling device using internal motor torques. A Liapunov technique is applied to derive a nonlinear feedback control law that drives the docked system to a final spin-stabilized state of equilibrium. External thrusters are used to maintain the absolute motion of the system during this process. Variations in grappling length, target coning angle, and response times are examined for design purposes. State and control histories are presented and the results from this five-body model are compared with the Widhalm and Conway two-body study. The simulation indicates that the required control magnitudes are higher for the five-body model but are still quite reasonable. The addition of the grappling arm assembly adds both realism and flexibility to the capture process. Theses. (JHD)