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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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NASA NTRS2000

Enabling Spacecraft Formation Flying in Any Earth Orbit Through Spaceborne GPS and Enhanced Autonomy Technologies

Formation flying is quickly revolutionizing the way the space community conducts autonomous science missions around the Earth and in space. This technological revolution will provide new, innovative ways for this community to gather scientific information, share this information between space vehicles and the ground, and expedite the human exploration of space. Once fully matured, this technology will result in swarms of space vehicles flying as a virtual platform and gathering significantly more and better science data than is possible today. Formation flying will be enabled through the development and deployment of spaceborne differential Global Positioning System (GPS) technology and through innovative spacecraft autonomy techniques, This paper provides an overview of the current status of NASA/DoD/Industry/University partnership to bring formation flying technology to the forefront as quickly as possible, the hurdles that need to be overcome to achieve the formation flying vision, and the team's approach to transfer this technology to space. It will also describe some of the formation flying testbeds, such as Orion, that are being developed to demonstrate and validate these innovative GPS sensing and formation control technologies.

Bauer, F. H.↗
NASA NTRS2001

2001 Flight Mechanics Symposium

This conference publication includes papers and abstracts presented at the Flight Mechanics Symposium held on June 19-21, 2001. Sponsored by the Guidance, Navigation and Control Center of Goddard Space Flight Center, this symposium featured technical papers on a wide range of issues related to attitude/orbit determination, prediction and control; attitude simulation; attitude sensor calibration; theoretical foundation of attitude computation; dynamics model improvements; autonomous navigation; constellation design and formation flying; estimation theory and computational techniques; Earth environment mission analysis and design; and, spacecraft re-entry mission design and operations. Government, industry, and the academic community participated in the preparation and presentation of these papers.

Flight mechanics↗
NASA NTRS2007

CNES Approaching Guidance Experiment within FFIORD

This article outlines the relative orbit control (guidance algorithm and its preliminary performance tests evaluation) that will be tested by the CNES Team on FFIORD (Formation Flying In Orbit Ranging Demonstration) onboard PRISMA mission. After a brief summary of the PRISMA mission context, the paper provides a full description of the rendezvous function involved in the approaching guidance experiment. This FFIORD onboard function is detailed in terms of on-board algorithmic method (basic algorithm and enhanced alternative), sensibility analysis used to construct maneuver plans and preliminary tests results.

Berges, Jean-Claude↗
NASA NTRS1989

Flight evaluation of pursuit displays for precision approach of powered-lift aircraft

Flight experiments with NASA Ames Research Center's quiet short-haul research aircraft evaluated the influence of pursuit displays on the ability of pilots to execute precision-instrument flight operations in the terminal area, particularly approaches to and landings on a short runway. The aircraft is a powered-lift, short-takeoff and landing configuration equipped with a modern digital fly-by-wire flight control system, a head-up display, and a color head-down display that make it possible to investigate control and display concepts for full-envelope, powered-lift operations. Flight-path-oriented displays that provide status and command information in a format with minimal clutter were investigated. The pilots could fly the aircraft with the precision associated with flight-director guidance and with a high degree of situation awareness. The primary benefits of this display concept were realized when the pilot was required to execute a complex transition and approach under instrument conditions and in the presence of a wide range of wind and turbulence conditions.

Hynes, Charles S.↗
NASA NTRS1990

Interaction of feel system and flight control system dynamics on lateral flying qualities

An experimental investigation of the influence of lateral feel system characteristics on fighter aircraft roll flying qualities was conducted using the variable stability USAF NT-33. Forty-two evaluation flights were flown by three engineering test pilots. The investigation utilized the power approach, visual landing task and up-and-away tasks including formation, gun tracking, and computer-generated compensatory attitude tracking tasks displayed on the Head-Up Display. Experimental variations included the feel system frequency, force-deflection gradient, control system command type (force or position input command), aircraft roll mode time constant, control system prefilter frequency, and control system time delay. The primary data were task performance records and evaluation pilot comments and ratings using the Cooper-Harper scale. The data highlight the unique and powerful effect of the feel system of flying qualities. The data show that the feel system is not 'equivalent' in flying qualities influence to analogous control system elements. A lower limit of allowable feel system frequency appears warranted to ensure good lateral flying qualities. Flying qualities criteria should most properly treat the feel system dynamic influence separately from the control system, since the input and output of this dynamic element is apparent to the pilot and thus, does not produce a 'hidden' effect.

Bailey, R. E.↗
NASA NTRS2004

Precision Formation Keeping at L2 Using the Autonomous Formation Flying Sensor

Recent advances in formation keeping for large numbers of spacecraft using the Autonomous Formation Flying are presented. This sensor, currently under development at JPL, has been identified as a key component in future formation flying spacecraft missions. The sensor provides accurate range and bearing measurements between pairs of spacecraft using GPS technology. Previous theoretical work by the authors has focused on developing a decentralized scheduling algorithm to control the tasking of such a sensor between the relative range and bearing measurements to each node in the formation. The resulting algorithm has been modified to include switching constraints in the sensor. This paper also presents a testbed for real time validation of a sixteen-node formation based on the Stellar Imager mission. Key aspects of the simulation include minimum fuel maneuvers based on free-body dynamics and a three body propagator for simulating the formation at L2.

McLoughlin, Terence H.↗
NASA NTRS2004

Formation Control for the Maxim Mission.

Over the next twenty years, a wave of change is occurring in the spacebased scientific remote sensing community. While the fundamental limits in the spatial and angular resolution achievable in spacecraft have been reached, based on today's technology, an expansive new technology base has appeared over the past decade in the area of Distributed Space Systems (DSS). A key subset of the DSS technology area is that which covers precision formation flying of space vehicles. Through precision formation flying, the baselines, previously defined by the largest monolithic structure which could fit in the largest launch vehicle fairing, are now virtually unlimited. Several missions including the Micro-Arcsecond X-ray Imaging Mission (MAXIM), and the Stellar Imager will drive the formation flying challenges to achieve unprecedented baselines for high resolution, extended-scene, interferometry in the ultraviolet and X-ray regimes. This paper focuses on establishing the feasibility for the formation control of the MAXIM mission. The Stellar Imager mission requirements are on the same order of those for MAXIM. This paper specifically addresses: (1) high-level science requirements for these missions and how they evolve into engineering requirements; (2) the formation control architecture devised for such missions; (3) the design of the formation control laws to maintain very high precision relative positions; and (4) the levels of fuel usage required in the duration of these missions. Specific preliminary results are presented for two spacecraft within the MAXIM mission.

Luquette, Richard J.↗
NASA NTRS2001

Alternate Forms of Relative Attitude Kinematics and Dynamics Equations

In this paper the alternate forms of the relative attitude kinematics and relative dynamics equations are presented. These developments are different from the earlier developments that have been presented in other publications. The current forms of equations have the advantage of being simpler than earlier ones. These equations are applied in developing the necessary kinematics and dynamics for relative navigation in formation flying and virtual platforms. These equations also have application in the implementation of nonlinear full state feedback and nonlinear output feedback control for large attitude angle acquisition and tracking. This paper presents simulations from such a full state feedback control application.

Xing, Guang Q.↗
NASA NTRS2006

A Convex Guidance Algorithm for Formation Reconfiguration

In this paper, a reconfiguration guidance algorithm for formation flying spacecraft is presented. The formation reconfiguration guidance problem is first formulated as a continuous-time minimum-fuel or minimum-energy optimal control problem with collision avoidance and control constraints. The optimal control problem is then discretized to obtain a finite dimensional parameter optimization problem. In this formulation, the collision avoidance constraints are imposed via separating planes between each pair of spacecraft. A heuristic is introduced to choose these separating planes that leads to the convexification of the collision avoidance constraints. Additionally, convex constraints are imposed to guarantee that no collisions occur between discrete time samples. The resulting finite dimensional optimization problem is a second order cone program, for which standard algorithms can compute the global optimum with deterministic convergence and a prescribed level of accuracy. Consequently, the formation reconfiguration algorithm can be implemented onboard a spacecraft for real-time operations.

formation reconfiguration↗
NASA NTRS2004

Electromagnetic Formation Flight (EMFF) for Sparse Aperture Arrays

Traditional methods of actuating spacecraft in sparse aperture arrays use propellant as a reaction mass. For formation flying systems, propellant becomes a critical consumable which can be quickly exhausted while maintaining relative orientation. Additional problems posed by propellant include optical contamination, plume impingement, thermal emission, and vibration excitation. For these missions where control of relative degrees of freedom is important, we consider using a system of electromagnets, in concert with reaction wheels, to replace the consumables. Electromagnetic Formation Flight sparse apertures, powered by solar energy, are designed differently from traditional propulsion systems, which are based on V. This paper investigates the design of sparse apertures both inside and outside the Earth's gravity field.

Kwon, Daniel W.↗
NASA NTRS2004

Assurance Technology Challenges of Advanced Space Systems

The initiative to explore space and extend a human presence across our solar system to revisit the moon and Mars post enormous technological challenges to the nation's space agency and aerospace industry. Key areas of technology development needs to enable the endeavor include advanced materials, structures and mechanisms; micro/nano sensors and detectors; power generation, storage and management; advanced thermal and cryogenic control; guidance, navigation and control; command and data handling; advanced propulsion; advanced communication; on-board processing; advanced information technology systems; modular and reconfigurable systems; precision formation flying; solar sails; distributed observing systems; space robotics; and etc. Quality assurance concerns such as functional performance, structural integrity, radiation tolerance, health monitoring, diagnosis, maintenance, calibration, and initialization can affect the performance of systems and subsystems. It is thus imperative to employ innovative nondestructive evaluation methodologies to ensure quality and integrity of advanced space systems. Advancements in integrated multi-functional sensor systems, autonomous inspection approaches, distributed embedded sensors, roaming inspectors, and shape adaptive sensors are sought. Concepts in computational models for signal processing and data interpretation to establish quantitative characterization and event determination are also of interest. Prospective evaluation technologies include ultrasonics, laser ultrasonics, optics and fiber optics, shearography, video optics and metrology, thermography, electromagnetics, acoustic emission, x-ray, data management, biomimetics, and nano-scale sensing approaches for structural health monitoring.

Chern, E. James↗
NASA NTRS1988

Flying qualities from early airplanes to the Space Shuttle

This paper discusses the historical development of the study of flying qualities and the evolution of flying qualities requirements. Subjects considered include the scope of flying qualities, early historical development of flying qualities, research on flying qualities requirements, human response characteristics, command control systems, gust response and its relation to flying qualities, prediction of flying qualities, discussion of the Space Shuttle and of some recent airplanes, and format of the flying qualities requirements.

Phillips, William H.↗
NASA NTRS2009

Protocol for Communication Networking for Formation Flying

An application-layer protocol and a network architecture have been proposed for data communications among multiple autonomous spacecraft that are required to fly in a precise formation in order to perform scientific observations. The protocol could also be applied to other autonomous vehicles operating in formation, including robotic aircraft, robotic land vehicles, and robotic underwater vehicles. A group of spacecraft or other vehicles to which the protocol applies could be characterized as a precision-formation- flying (PFF) network, and each vehicle could be characterized as a node in the PFF network. In order to support precise formation flying, it would be necessary to establish a corresponding communication network, through which the vehicles could exchange position and orientation data and formation-control commands. The communication network must enable communication during early phases of a mission, when little positional knowledge is available. Particularly during early mission phases, the distances among vehicles may be so large that communication could be achieved only by relaying across multiple links. The large distances and need for omnidirectional coverage would limit communication links to operation at low bandwidth during these mission phases. Once the vehicles were in formation and distances were shorter, the communication network would be required to provide high-bandwidth, low-jitter service to support tight formation-control loops. The proposed protocol and architecture, intended to satisfy the aforementioned and other requirements, are based on a standard layered-reference-model concept. The proposed application protocol would be used in conjunction with conventional network, data-link, and physical-layer protocols. The proposed protocol includes the ubiquitous Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 medium access control (MAC) protocol to be used in the datalink layer. In addition to its widespread and proven use in diverse local-area networks, this protocol offers both (1) a random- access mode needed for the early PFF deployment phase and (2) a time-bounded-services mode needed during PFF-maintenance operations. Switching between these two modes could be controlled by upper-layer entities using standard link-management mechanisms. Because the early deployment phase of a PFF mission can be expected to involve multihop relaying to achieve network connectivity (see figure), the proposed protocol includes the open shortest path first (OSPF) network protocol that is commonly used in the Internet. Each spacecraft in a PFF network would be in one of seven distinct states as the mission evolved from initial deployment, through coarse formation, and into precise formation. Reconfiguration of the formation to perform different scientific observations would also cause state changes among the network nodes. The application protocol provides for recognition and tracking of the seven states for each node and for protocol changes under specified conditions to adapt the network and satisfy communication requirements associated with the current PFF mission phase. Except during early deployment, when peer-to-peer random access discovery methods would be used, the application protocol provides for operation in a centralized manner.

Jennings, Esther↗
NASA NTRS2003

Autonomous Sciencecraft Experiment (ASE) Test Operations in 2003

NASA has identified the development of an autonomously operating spacecraft as a necessity for an expanded program of missions exploring the Solar System. The Autonomous Sciencecraft Experiment (ASE) has been selected for flight demonstration by NASA s New Millennium Program (NMP) as part of the Space Technology 6 (ST6) mission. ASE is scheduled to fly on the US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) Techsat-21 constellation in 2006. Tech- Sat-21 consists of three satellites flying in a variable-geometry formation in Earth orbit. Each satellite is equipped with X-band Synthetic Aperture Radar, yielding high spatial resolution images (approx. 3 m) of the Earth s surface. The constellation will fly at an altitude of 550 km, in a 35.4 inclination circular orbit, yielding exact repeat-track observations every 13 days. Prior to full deployment, elements of the versatile ASE spacecraft command and control software, image formation software and science processing software will be utilized and tested on two very different platforms in 2003: AirSAR and EO-1 (described below). Advantages of Autonomous Operations: ASE will demonstrate advanced autonomous science data acquisition, processing, and product downlink prioritization, as well as autonomous spacecraft command and control, and fault detection. The advantages of spacecraft autonomy are to future missions include: (a) making the best use of reduced downlink; (b) the overcoming of communication delays through decisionmaking in situ, enabling fast reaction to dynamic events; (c) an increase of science content per byte of returned data; and (d) an avoidance of return of null (no-change/no feature) datasets: if there is no change detectable between two scenes of the same target, there is no need to return the second dataset.

Chien, S.↗
NASA NTRS2004

Dynamics of Earth orbiting formations

In this paper the equations of motion of a formation consisting of n spacecraft in Earth orbit are derived via Lagrange's equations. The equations of motion of the formation are developed with respect to both (1) a bound Keplerian reference orbit, and (2) a specific spacecraft in the formation. The major orbital perturbations acting on a formation in low Earth orbit are also included in the analysis. In contrast to the traditional approach based on the balance of linear momentum, the use of Lagrange's equations leads to a high-level matrix derivation of the formation equations of motion. The matrix form of the nonlinear motion equations is then linearized about a bound Keplerian reference orbit. Next, it is demonstrated that under the assumption of a circular reference orbit, the linearized equations of motion reduce to the well-known Hill-Clohessy-Wiltshire equations. The resulting linear and nonlinear dynamic equations lead to maximal physical insight into the structure of formation dynamics, and are ideally suited for use in the design and validation of formation guidance and control laws.

formation flying↗
NASA NTRS2016

On Wings of the Minimum Induced Drag: Spanload Implications for Aircraft and Birds

For nearly a century Ludwig Prandtl's lifting-line theory remains a standard tool for understanding and analyzing aircraft wings. The tool, said Prandtl, initially points to the elliptical spanload as the most efficient wing choice, and it, too, has become the standard in aviation. Having no other model, avian researchers have used the elliptical spanload virtually since its introduction. Yet over the last half-century, research in bird flight has generated increasing data incongruous with the elliptical spanload. In 1933 Prandtl published a little-known paper presenting a superior spanload: any other solution produces greater drag. We argue that this second spanload is the correct model for bird flight data. Based on research we present a unifying theory for superior efficiency and coordinated control in a single solution. Specifically, Prandtl's second spanload offers the only solution to three aspects of bird flight: how birds are able to turn and maneuver without a vertical tail; why birds fly in formation with their wingtips overlapped; and why narrow wingtips do not result in wingtip stall. We performed research using two experimental aircraft designed in accordance with the fundamentals of Prandtl's second paper, but applying recent developments, to validate the various potentials of the new spanload, to wit: as an alternative for avian researchers, to demonstrate the concept of proverse yaw, and to offer a new method of aircraft control and efficiency.

aerodynamics↗
NASA NTRS2005

Formation Flying of Tethered and Nontethered Spacecraft

A paper discusses the effect of the dynamic interaction taking place within a formation composed of a rigid and a deformable vehicle, and presents the concept of two or more tethered spacecraft flying in formation with one or more separated free-flying spacecraft. Although progress toward formation flight of nontethered spacecraft has already been achieved, the document cites potential advantages of tethering, including less consumption of fuel to maintain formation, very high dynamic stability of a rotating tethered formation, and intrinsically passive gravity-gradient stabilization. The document presents a theoretical analysis of the dynamics of a system comprising one free-flying spacecraft and two tethered spacecraft in orbit, as a prototype of more complex systems. The spacecraft are modeled as rigid bodies and the tether as a mass-less spring with structural viscous damping. Included in the analysis is a study of the feasibility of a centralized control system for maintaining a required formation in low Earth orbit. A numerical simulation of a retargeting maneuver is reported to show that even if the additional internal dynamics of the system caused by flexibility is considered, high pointing precision can be achieved if a fictitious rigid frame is used to track the tethered system, and it should be possible to position the spacecraft with centimeter accuracy and to orient the formation within arc seconds of the desired direction also in the presence of low Earth orbit environmental perturbations. The results of the study demonstrate that the concept is feasible in Earth orbit and point the way to further study of these hybrid tethered and free-flying systems for related applications in orbit around other Solar System bodies.

Quadrelli, Marco B.↗
NASA NTRS2002

Integrated Orbit and Attitude Control for a Nanosatellite with Power Constraints

HokieSat is a NASA Goddard sponsored spacecraft currently being built by students at Virginia Tech. HokieSat is part of the Ionospheric Observation Nanosatellite Formation (ION-F) project. The project involves spacecraft built by three schools: Virginia Tech (VT), Utah State University (USU), and University of Washington (UW). The three spacecraft are similar in design and will perform formation flying demonstrations, and make ionospheric measurements. HokieSat uses Pulsed Plasma Thrusters (PPTs) to maintain its position in the formation. There are two pairs of PPTs on HokieSat; their position on HokieSat's hexagonal cross-section is shown. Thrusters T(sub 2) and T(sub 3) provide translation control, and Thrusters TI and T4 can provide yaw steering. Any thruster can be fired individually. However because they share a capacitor, thrusters T(sub 1) and T(sub 2) or thrusters T(sub 3) and T(sub 4) cannot be fired simultaneously. Thrusters T(sub 2) T(sub 3) can be fired simultaneously, as well as thrusters T(sub 1) and T(sub 4). Each thruster provides an impulse-bit of 56 micronN-s and fires at a rate of 1 Hz. For translation control thrusters T2 and T3 are fired together providing an impulse-bit of 112 micronN-s. All four thrusters are positioned slightly above the center of mass, and therefore exert a torque on the spacecraft. Because there are no thrusters in the zenith-nadir directions, and the communication system requires that the spacecraft remain nadir-pointing, there is no way to thrust in the radial direction. The attitude of HokieSat is controlled by 3 orthogonal magnetic torque coils. Attitude control is achieved by forcing a current through the torque coils, which interacts with the Earth's magnetic field and creates a torque. Due to magnetic field interactions between the coils and PPTs, the two actuator systems cannot be used simultaneously, and any attitude or orbit control must be performed in a piecewise fashion. Power limitations place an additional constraint on the HokieSat control subsystem. When the spacecraft is in eclipse, the power subsystem can provide only enough power to operate vital spacecraft functions.

Berry, Matthew M.↗