Aas 95-318 Minimum Time Fuel Efficient Maneuver of Flexible Spacecraft with Vibration Amplitude Constraints

This paper describes an on-off control scheme for minimum time maneuver of flexible spacecraft with vibration suppression during the slew. The method minimizes the maneuver time subject to constraints on residual vibration, sensitivity to modeling errors, rest-to-rest slew distance, and transient vibration amplitude. Furthermore, a solution is sought in the form of a plausible train of pulses, with coasting between pulses to provide inherent fuel efficiency. Two different techniques for obtaining the switching times are presented. The efficacy of the method is demonstrated by applying the theory to a linear model of a shuttle-borne antenna system and then using the results in a complex model in which the antennae can undergo large nonlinear elastic deformations during slewing.