Title: Orbital design and optimal control of cislunar transport mission using spinning tether system

Authors: Hong-Shi Lu; Chang-Qing Wang; Ai-Jun Li; Zabolotnov Yuriy

Addresses: Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an Shanxi 710072, China; Samara State Aerospace University, Samara 443086, Russia ' Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an Shanxi 710072, China; Samara State Aerospace University, Samara 443086, Russia ' Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an Shanxi 710072, China; Samara State Aerospace University, Samara 443086, Russia ' Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an Shanxi 710072, China; Samara State Aerospace University, Samara 443086, Russia

Abstract: To transport payload into lunar transfer orbit using spinning tether system, reusable payload transport design were proposed and analysed. When final design was decided, open-loop reference control of payload transport stage was developed using optimal control theories. For the insufficient thrust case in LEO orbit, Hamiltonian on/off control was used to solve the problem. Numerical results indicate that the final transport design is able to transport payload into desired orbit, and the control law could satisfy mission requirement. Compared to conventional rocket transport, much less propellant is required by the spinning system with system reusability.

Keywords: tether satellites; tethered space systems; TSS; payload transport; optimal control; Hamiltonian energy; orbital design; optimal control; cislunar transport missions; spinning tether systems; space tethers; low earth orbit; LEO; system reusability; propellant use.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSPACESE.2016.081567

International Journal of Space Science and Engineering, 2016 Vol.4 No.2, pp.106 - 120

Received: 21 May 2016
Accepted: 12 Aug 2016

Published online: 13 Jan 2017 *

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