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 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.
An apparatus comprising:
- memory;
- machine-readable instructions;
- and
- processor circuitry 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;
- detect a change between the first angular momentum state and the second angular momentum state of the satellite;
- and
- in response 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.
A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium comprising instructions to cause programmable circuitry 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;
- and
- responsive to the identification, adjust the center of mass of the spacecraft.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.