Abstract
The PowerSail concept is a relatively new concept, still in the conceptual stage but does promise a practical solution to the growing power-needs of today's high-performance satellites. PowerSail is a proposed concept involving a large solar sail connected to a host satellite by a pair of hollow links housing an electrical conductor. The mechanism connecting the sail and the host consists of seven active joints. This thesis addresses the modeling of the system dynamics and the design of control laws to achieve the objectives of the mission. The control objectives are to point the sail toward the sun and minimize the reaction transmitted onto the host. The dynamic model includes the effects of solar radiation pressure and gravity gradient torque. Assuming that the attitude of the host is perfectly controlled or its attitude behavior is specified, the control action and dynamics of the sail and the link joints are determined. Kinematic inversion is performed first, to obtain the required angular velocity of the sail and the joint angular rates. The acceleration commands are obtained by using a control law to track the desired velocities. Subsequently, the dynamic model is inverted to compute the nominal control forces and moments. Simulation results for various cases are presented and the results are analyzed.
Naik, Kishore Shivdas (2002). Modeling and control of a PowerSail. Master's thesis, Texas A&M University. Available electronically from
https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /ETD -TAMU -2002 -THESIS -N27.