Body-fixed orbit-attitude hovering at equilibria near an asteroid using non-canonical Hamiltonian structure

Orbit-attitude hovering of a spacecraft at the natural relative equilibria in the body-fixed frame of a uniformly rotating asteroid is discussed in the framework of the full spacecraft dynamics, in which the spacecraft is modeled as a rigid body with the gravitational orbit-attitude coupling. In this hovering model, both the position and attitude of the spacecraft are kept to be stationary in the asteroid body-fixed frame. A Hamiltonian structure-based feedback control law is proposed to stabilize the relative equilibria of the full dynamics to achieve the orbit-attitude hovering. The control law is consisted of two parts: potential shaping and energy dissipation. The potential shaping is to make the relative equilibrium a minimum of the modified Hamiltonian on the invariant manifold by modifying the potential artificially. With the energy-Casimir method, it is shown that the unstable relative equilibrium can always be stabilized in the Lyapunov sense by the potential shaping with sufficiently large feedback gains. Then the energy dissipation leads the motion to converge asymptotically to the minimum of the modified Hamiltonian on the invariant manifold, i.e., the relative equilibrium. The feasibility of the proposed stabilization control law is validated through numerical simulations in the case of a spacecraft orbiting around a small asteroid. The main advantage of the proposed hovering control law is that it is very simple and is easy to implement autonomously by the spacecraft with little computation. This advantage is attributed to the utilization of dynamical behaviors of the system in the control design.

Stability of the relative equilibria of a rigid body in a J2 gravity field

The motion of a point mass in the J2 problem is generalized to that of a rigid body in a J2 gravity field. Different with the original J2 problem, the gravitational orbit-rotation coupling of the rigid body is considered in this generalized problem. The linear stability of the classical type of relative equilibria of the rigid body, which have been obtained in our previous paper, is studied in the framework of geometric mechanics with the second-order gravitational potential. Non-canonical Hamiltonian structure of the problem, i.e., Poisson tensor, Casimir functions and equations of motion, are obtained through a Poisson reduction process by means of the symmetry of the problem. The linear system matrix at the relative equilibria is given through the multiplication of the Poisson tensor and Hessian matrix of the variational Lagrangian. Based on the characteristic equation of the linear system matrix, the conditions of linear stability of the relative equilibria are obtained. With the stability conditions obtained, the linear stability of the relative equilibria is investigated in details in a wide range of the parameters of the gravity field and the rigid body. We find that both the zonal harmonic J2 and the characteristic dimension of the rigid body have significant effects on the linear stability. Similar to the attitude stability in a central gravity field, the linear stability region is also consisted of two regions that are analogues of the Lagrange region and the DeBra-Delp region. Our results are very useful for the studies on the motion of natural satellites in our solar system.

Nonlinear attitude stability of a spacecraft on a stationary orbit around an asteroid subjected to gravity gradient torque

The classical problem of attitude stability in a central gravity field is generalized to that on a stationary orbit around a uniformly-rotating asteroid. This generalized problem is studied in the framework of geometric mechanics. Based on the natural symplectic structure, the non-canonical Hamiltonian structure of the problem is derived. The Poisson tensor, Casimir functions and equations of motion are obtained in a differential geometric method. The equilibrium of the equations of motion, i.e. the equilibrium attitude of the spacecraft, is determined from a global point of view. Nonlinear stability conditions of the equilibrium attitude are obtained with the energy-Casimir method. The nonlinear attitude stability is then investigated versus three parameters of the asteroid, including the ratio of the mean radius to the stationary orbital radius, the harmonic coefficients C20 and C22. It is found that when the spacecraft is located on the intermediate-moment principal axis of the asteroid, the nonlinear stability domain can be totally different from the classical Lagrange region on a circular orbit in a central gravity field.

Fourth-order gravity gradient torque of spacecraft orbiting asteroids

The dynamical behavior of spacecraft around asteroids is a key element in design of such missions. An asteroids irregular shape, non-spherical mass distribution and its rotational sate make the dynamics of spacecraft quite complex. This paper focuses on the gravity gradient torque of spacecraft around non-spherical asteroids. The gravity field of the asteroid is approximated as a 2nd degree and order-gravity field with harmonic coefficients C20 and C22. By introducing the spacecrafts higher-order inertia integrals, a full fourth-order gravity gradient torque model of the spacecraft is established through the gravitational potential derivatives. Our full fourth-order model is more precise than previous fourth-order model due to the consideration of higher-order inertia integrals of the spacecraft. Some interesting conclusions about the gravity gradient torque model are reached. Then a numerical simulation is carried out to verify our model. In the numerical simulation, a special spacecraft consisted of 36 point masses connected by rigid massless rods is considered. We assume that the asteroid is in a uniform rotation around its maximum-moment principal axis, and the spacecraft is on the stationary orbit in the equatorial plane. Simulation results show that the motion of previous fourth-order model is quite different from the exact motion, while our full fourth-order model fits the exact motion very well. And our model is precise enough for practical applications.

On the Construction of Low-Energy Cislunar and Trans-lunar Transfers Based on the Libration Points

There exist cislunar and trans-lunar libration points near the Moon, which are referred as the LL1 and LL2 points respectively and can generate the different types of low-energy trajectories transferring from Earth to Moon. The time-dependent analytic model including the gravitational forces from the Sun, Earth and Moon is employed to investigate the energy-minimal and practical transfer trajectories. However, different from the circular restricted three-body problem, the equivalent gravitational equilibria are defined according to the geometry of instantaneous Hills boundary due to the gravitational perturbation from the Sun. The relationship between the altitudes of periapsis and eccentricities is achieved from the Poincare mapping for all the lunar captured trajectories, which presents the statistical feature of the fuel cost and captured orbital elements rather than generating a specified Moon-captured segment. The minimum energy required by the captured trajectory on a lunar circular orbit is deduced in the spatial bi-circular model. It is presented that the asymptotical behaviors of invariant manifolds approaching to/from the libration points or halo orbits are destroyed by the solar perturbation. In fact, the energy-minimal cislunar transfer trajectory is acquired by transiting LL1 point, while the energy-minimal trans-lunar transfer trajectory is obtained by transiting LL2 point. Finally, the transfer opportunities for the practical trajectories escaped from the Earth and captured by the Moon are yielded by transiting halo orbits near LL1 and LL2 points, which can be used to generate the whole trajectories.

Gravity gradient torque of spacecraft orbiting asteroids

Purpose: This paper presents a full fourth-order model of the gravity gradient torque of spacecraft around asteroids by taking into consideration of the inertia integrals of the spacecraft up to the fourth order, which is an improvement of the previous fourth-order model of the gravity gradient torque. Design, methodology and approach: The fourth-order gravitational potential of the spacecraft is derived based on Taylor expansion. Then the expression of the gravity gradient torque in terms of gravitational potential derivatives is derived. By using the formulation of the gravitational potential, explicit formulations of the full fourth-order gravity gradient torque are obtained. Then a numerical simulation is carried out to verify our model. Findings: We find that our model is more sound and precise than the previous fourth-order model due to the consideration of higher-order inertia integrals of the spacecraft. Numerical simulation results show that the motion of the previous fourth-order model is quite different from the exact motion, while our full fourth-order model fits the exact motion very well. Our full fourth-order model is precise enough for high-precision attitude dynamics and control around asteroids. Practical implications: This high-precision model is of importance for the future asteroids missions for scientific explorations and near-Earth objects mitigation. Originality and value: In comparison with the previous model, a gravity gradient torque model around asteroids that is more sound and precise is established. This model is valuable for high-precision attitude dynamics and control around asteroids.

On the existence of the relative equilibria of a rigid body in the J2 problem

The motion of a point mass in the J2 problem has been generalized to that of a rigid body in a J2 gravity field for new high-precision applications in the celestial mechanics and astrodynamics. Unlike the original J2 problem, the gravitational orbit-rotation coupling of the rigid body is considered in the generalized problem. The existence and properties of both the classical and non-classical relative equilibria of the rigid body are investigated in more details in the present paper based on our previous results. We nondimensionalize the system by the characteristic time and length to make the study more general. Through the study, it is found that the classical relative equilibria can always exist in the real physical situation. Numerical results suggest that the non-classical relative equilibria only can exist in the case of a negative J2, i.e., the central body is elongated; they cannot exist in the case of a positive J2 when the central body is oblate. In the case of a negative J2, the effect of the orbit-rotation coupling of the rigid body on the existence of the non-classical relative equilibria can be positive or negative, which depends on the values of J2 and the angular velocity. The bifurcation from the classical relative equilibria, at which the non-classical relative equilibria appear, has been shown with different parameters of the system. Our results here have given more details of the relative equilibria than our previous paper, in which the existence conditions of the relative equilibria are derived and primarily studied. Our results have also extended the previous results on the relative equilibria of a rigid body in a central gravity field by taking into account the oblateness of the central body.

Stability of the classical type of relative equilibria of a rigid body in the J2 problem

The motion of a point mass in the J2 problem is generalized to that of a rigid body in a J2 gravity field. The linear and nonlinear stability of the classical type of relative equilibria of the rigid body, which have been obtained in our previous paper, are studied in the framework of geometric mechanics with the second-order gravitational potential. Non-canonical Hamiltonian structure of the problem, i.e., Poisson tensor, Casimir functions and equations of motion, are obtained through a Poisson reduction process by means of the symmetry of the problem. The linear system matrix at the relative equilibria is given through the multiplication of the Poisson tensor and Hessian matrix of the variational Lagrangian. Based on the characteristic equation of the linear system matrix, the conditions of linear stability of the relative equilibria are obtained. The conditions of nonlinear stability of the relative equilibria are derived with the energy-Casimir method through the projected Hessian matrix of the variational Lagrangian. With the stability conditions obtained, both the linear and nonlinear stability of the relative equilibria are investigated in details in a wide range of the parameters of the gravity field and the rigid body. We find that both the zonal harmonic J2 and the characteristic dimension of the rigid body have significant effects on the linear and nonlinear stability. Similar to the classical attitude stability in a central gravity field, the linear stability region is also consisted of two regions that are analogues of the Lagrange region and the DeBra-Delp region respectively. The nonlinear stability region is the subset of the linear stability region in the first quadrant that is the analogue of the Lagrange region. Our results are very useful for the studies on the motion of natural satellites in our solar system.