A desired characteristic of future spacecraft and space structures is the possibility of reducing the costs inherent with their transport in the space. Hence, it is necessary to decrease their weight; the main drawback consists of the decreased rigidity of the structure. Therefore, the elimination of vibrations becomes an important issue in spacecraft maneuvers. Another issue, related to the pr...

Introduction Within the framework of its General Studies Programme (GSP), ESA performs a number of pre-Phase-A assessment studies each year. The purpose of these studies is to assess the feasibility of a new space mission from the technical, programmatic and economic points of view. This is normally achieved by producing a preliminary conceptual design of the mission and space system. The resul...

with ∆A, ∆B uncertainty matrices, A, B, C the nominal matrices, Φ(u) a nonlinear continuous function, x, u, y the state, input and output of the system, and f ∈ R a disturbance. The design is based on the adaption of the bounds on the uncertainty matrices and the disturbance, through the application of Barbalat lemma, as common in adaptive control. The theoretical results are then applied to th...

The rapid growth of space utilization requires extensive construction, and maintenance of space structures and satellites in orbit. This will, in turn, substantiate application of robotic systems in space. In this paper, a near-minimum-time optimal control law is developed for a rigid space platform with flexible links during an orientating maneuver with large angle of rotation. The time opti...