ATTITUDE-CONTROL TEST OF FLEXIBLE SPACECRAFT

Most of the attitude control tests of flexible spacecraft have been ma de by numerical simulation, a static closed loop test or a dynamic clo sed loop test. However, the dynamic closed loop test is required to ch eck hardware compatibilities with an actual spacecraft control system. This paper describes a new dynamic closed loop test system and verifi cation of a new attitude controller using this dynamic test system. Th e problem peculiar to this test system is a physical model, how to rea lize spacecraft flexibility parameters and how to remove residual dist urbance torque on the ground. In this test system, it is possible to o btain the dynamic characteristics of the physical spacecraft model, eq uivalent to that which the real flexible spacecraft indicates. Using t his test system, the dynamic closed loop tests of flexible spacecraft attitude controller have been carried out on the ground. Its tests hav e been made to evaluate the performance of the newly developed attitud e controller for flexible spacecraft. This new controller has the abil ity to improve the attitude control bandwidth for disturbance in compa rison with a conventional controller. Moreover, this controller can be easily realized by existing hardwares. A numerical simulation results and test results of this attitude controller are presented.