Abstract
A cold gas propulsion system is well suited to provide the required thrust for a small surveyor spacecraft operated near an asteroid or planetary surface. The cold gas propellant can obtained in-situ from local surface or atmospheric constituents. For small spacecraft, the cold gas system may be limited to only on-off control of the main tank where the generated thrust is directly dependent on the tank pressure. As such the thrust will slowly decrease as the propellant is expended. A state feedback, time optimal, control law is developed for a vehicle with propellant is expended. A state feedback, time optimal, control law is developed for a vehicle with decreasing thrust in translational motion. The success of the control law is shown in simulation.
| Original language | American English |
|---|---|
| Journal | IFAC PapersOnLine |
| Volume | 50 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Jul 1 2017 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Control of systems in vehicles
- Guidance
- navigation and control of vehicles
- Space exploration and transportation
- Optimal control theory
- Variable structure control
Disciplines
- Navigation, Guidance, Control and Dynamics
- Propulsion and Power
- Space Vehicles
- Systems Engineering and Multidisciplinary Design Optimization