Vertical take-off and landing spacecraft and method of controlling vertical take-off and landing spacecraft
AssigneesMitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd., National University Corporation Nagoya University
InventorsToyonori Kobayakawa, Noboru Sakamoto, Yuta Habaguchi
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Abstract
A vertical take-off and landing spacecraft includes a body, a plurality of engines provided in the body to produce a jet flow and generate thrust, an abnormal signal acquiring unit that acquires an abnormal signal indicative of a presence of an abnormal engine among the plurality of engines, and an engine control unit that outputs a stop signal that stops a specific engine among a plurality of operating engines based on the abnormal signal.
Claims12
A vertical take-off and landing spacecraft comprising:
- a body;
- a plurality of engines provided in the body to produce a jet flow and generate thrust;
- a gimbal device which is provided in each of the plurality of engines and includes an actuator capable of adjusting a direction of the engine;
- an actuator control unit configured to control the actuator;
- an abnormal signal acquiring unit configured to acquire an abnormal signal indicative of a presence of an abnormal engine among the plurality of engines;
- and
- an engine control unit configured to output a stop signal which stops a specific engine among a plurality of operating engines based on the abnormal signal,
- wherein the actuator control unit controls the actuator of a normally operating engine different from the abnormal engine and the specific engine stopped by the stop signal, so that the central axis of the body and a ground are orthogonal to each other.
A method of controlling a vertical take-off and landing spacecraft, the method comprising:
- acquiring an abnormal signal which acquires an abnormal signal indicative of a presence of an abnormal engine among a plurality of engines provided in a body of the vertical take-off and landing spacecraft which produces a jet flow and generates a thrust;
- outputting a stop signal for stopping a specific engine among a plurality of operating engines based on the abnormal signal;
- and
- after acquiring the abnormal signal, controlling an actuator of a gimbal device of a normally operating engine different from the abnormal engine and the specific engine stopped by the stop signal, so that the central axis of the body and a ground are orthogonal to each other,
- wherein the gimbal device is provided in each of the plurality of engines and includes the actuator, the actuator being capable of adjusting a direction of the engine.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.