Control of Magnetic Space Tug

Emilien Fabacher (1) , Daniel Alazard (1) , Finn Ankersen (2) , Stéphanie Lizy-Destrez (1) , Léonore de Mijolla (3)

1 DCAS - Département Conception et conduite des véhicules Aéronautiques et Spatiaux
2 ESA - ESTEC (Netherlands)
3 Airbus (FRANCE)

Magnetic tugging of a target satellite without thrust capacity can be interesting in various contexts. In this paper, the dynamics of such a 2-satellites formation is derived and linearised about a nominal configuration which is not necessarily constant. Analytical expressions are given for the different forces and torques differentials. Two LQ-based controllers are given, depending on the capacity of the target to control its own attitude. Linear simulations of the closed loop system are realised and compared with the full order non-linear model. The results obtained are promising and consistent with previous research.

Mots clés: Guidance and control; Formation flying; Spacecraft dynamics

Domaines: Systèmes dynamiques [math.DS]

Emilien Fabacher, Daniel Alazard, Finn Ankersen, Stéphanie Lizy-Destrez, Léonore de Mijolla. Control of Magnetic Space Tug. 20th IFAC Symposium on Automatic Control in Aerospace (ACA 2016), Aug 2016, Sherbrooke, Canada. pp. 278 - 283, ⟨10.1016/j.ifacol.2016.09.048⟩. ⟨hal-03200245⟩