Suppression of Microvibrations of Low-Earth-Orbit Satellites with Flexible Solar Panels

Abstract

Three axis-control low-earth-orbit (LEO) satellites use momentum exchange devices, such as reaction wheels, to maneuver and control their attitude to perform image acquisition. High-resolution satellite payloads demand stable pointing with very small jitter to achieve good performance. Microsatellites with flexible appendages such as deployable solar panels are very prone to vibration, especially when excited by internal actuators such as reaction wheels or momentum wheels that are used to control the attitude of the satellite. Any infinitesimal amount of unbalance in the reaction wheels’ rotors will impose a harmonic excitation that may interact with the structure of the solar panels. Therefore, controlling the solar panels’ structural vibration interaction would control the jitter. This control was achieved by attaching a set of properly chosen point masses at selected locations along the solar panels. The panels are modeled using Timoshenko beam theory. A scheme was proposed for choosing the optimal va...