Taxonomy of Earth Impacting Trajectories: the Case of JUICE Launcher Upper Stage

The paper presents results of engineering studies and research and development efforts at RSC Energia to analyze and prove the feasibility of using the mass-produced oxygen-hydrocarbon engine 11D58M with 8.5 ton-force thrust as a basis for development of a high-performance multifunctional rocket engine with oxygen cooling and 5 ton-force thrust, which is optimal for upper stages (US), embodying a system that does not include a gas generator. The multi-functionality of the engine implies including in it additional units supporting some functions that are important for US, such as feeding propellant from US tanks to the engine after flying in zero gravity, autonomous control of the engine automatic equipment to support its firing, shutdown, adjustments during burn and emergency protection in case of off-nominal operation, as well as generating torques for controlling the US attitude and stabilizing it during coasting, etc. Replacing conventional engine chamber cooling that uses high-boiling hydrocarbon fuel with the innovative oxygen cooling makes it possible to get rid of the internal film cooling circuits and eliminate their attendant losses of fuel, while the use of the oxygen gasified in the cooling circuit of the chamber to drive the turbo pump assembly permits to design an engine that does not have a gas generator. Key words: Multifunctional rocket engine, oxygen cooling, gas-generatorless design, upper stage.

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Development of a dual-stage and visual-servo filming robot

Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers Part I Journal of Systems and Control Engineering ◽

10.1177/0959651821991363 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 095965182199136

Author(s):

Liang-Chien Liu ◽

Ping-Han Yang ◽

Shih-Chi Liao ◽

Bing-Peng Li ◽

Fu-Cheng Wang ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Fast Response ◽

Tracking Performance ◽

Visual Servo ◽

Response Characteristics ◽

Lower Stage ◽

Upper Stage ◽

Dual Stage ◽

Switching Controller ◽

Similar Evaluation ◽

Better Than

This article presents the development of a visual-servo filming robot for dolly & truck style camera movement in filming applications. The robot was implemented with a fast-response slider as the upper stage on top of the slow-response tracked robot body as the lower stage, to improve target tracking performance. A new switching controller was developed, which controlled the stages’ motions by balancing and adjusting the weights of vision error and slider’s noncentering error of the upper stage, thus achieving tracking performance better than the traditional master–slave control strategy. The simulations were carried out to evaluate the tracking performance of the model, particularly focusing on evaluating how the dual stage improves the overall response of the model. The similar evaluation was executed experimentally as well. Both results confirm that the fast-response characteristics of the upper stage can compensate the slow dynamics of lower stage, the tracked robot which is inevitably heavy due to its composition.

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Neighboring Optimal Guidance and Constrained Attitude Control for Accurate Orbit Injection

Aerotecnica Missili & Spazio ◽

10.1007/s42496-021-00077-3 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Mauro Pontani ◽

Fabio Celani

Keyword(s):

Attitude Control ◽

Initial Position ◽

Low Earth Orbit ◽

Guidance And Control ◽

Optimal Guidance ◽

Combined Use ◽

Upper Stage ◽

Neighboring Optimal Guidance ◽

And Control ◽

Guidance Technique

AbstractAccurate orbit injection represents a crucial issue in several mission scenarios, e.g., for spacecraft orbiting the Earth or for payload release from the upper stage of an ascent vehicle. This work considers a new guidance and control architecture based on the combined use of (i) the variable-time-domain neighboring optimal guidance technique (VTD-NOG), and (ii) the constrained proportional-derivative (CPD) algorithm for attitude control. More specifically, VTD-NOG & CPD is applied to two distinct injection maneuvers: (a) Hohmann-like finite-thrust transfer from a low Earth orbit to a geostationary orbit, and (b) orbit injection of the upper stage of a launch vehicle. Nonnominal flight conditions are modeled by assuming errors on the initial position, velocity, attitude, and attitude rate, as well as actuation deviations. Extensive Monte Carlo campaigns prove effectiveness and accuracy of the guidance and control methodology at hand, in the presence of realistic deviations from nominal flight conditions.

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