Systems, apparatus, and methods for momentum management for a spacecraft
AssigneeThe Boeing Company
InventorsRichard Lawrence Pepe, Sadek Wagdy Mansour, Haytham Mahmoud Elmasri
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Abstract
Systems, apparatus, and method for momentum management for a spacecraft are disclosed. An example spacecraft includes a body; an appendage moveably coupled to the body; a thruster carried by the body; machine-readable instructions; and processor circuitry to execute the machine-readable instructions to detect a change in angular momentum at the spacecraft during firing of the thruster; and in response to the detection, cause the appendage to move relative to the body to adjust a center of mass of the spacecraft relative to a net thrust vector associated with the thruster.
Claims20
A spacecraft comprising:
- a body;
- an appendage movably coupled to the body;
- a thruster carried by the body, the thruster being one of a plurality of thrusters carried by the body, the appendage separately coupled to the body relative to the coupling of each of the plurality of thrusters to the body;
- machine-readable instructions;
- and
- at least one programmable circuit to execute the machine-readable instructions to:
- detect a change in angular momentum at the spacecraft during firing of the thruster;
- and
- responsive to the detection, cause the appendage to move relative to the body to adjust a center of mass of the spacecraft relative to a net thrust vector associated with the thruster.
An apparatus comprising:
- memory;
- machine-readable instructions;
- and
- at least one programmable circuit to execute the machine-readable instructions to:
- determine a first angular momentum state of a satellite at a first time;
- determine a second angular momentum state of the satellite at a second time, the second time associated with performance of a thrusting maneuver by the satellite, the satellite including a plurality of thrusters;
- detect a change between the first angular momentum state and the second angular momentum state of the satellite;
- and
- responsive to the detection of the change, cause an appendage of the satellite to move from a first position to a second position relative to a body of the satellite to change a center of mass of the satellite, the appendage coupled to a different portion of the satellite than each of the plurality of thrusters.
A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium comprising machine-readable instructions to cause at least one programmable circuit to at least:
- identify, based on (a) sensor data corresponding to outputs of an inertial measurement sensor of a spacecraft and (b) telemetry data associated with a momentum storage device of the spacecraft, a misalignment between a center of mass of the spacecraft and a net thrust vector during firing of a thruster of the spacecraft, the thruster being one of a plurality of thrusters of the spacecraft;
- and
- responsive to the identification, cause an actuator to move an appendage of the spacecraft to adjust the center of mass of the spacecraft, the appendage independently coupled to the spacecraft relative to the coupling of respective ones of the plurality of thrusters to the spacecraft.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.