{"title":"Analytical propagation solution for planet-displaced orbit in the presence of third-body perturbations","authors":"Xingyu Zhou , Dong Qiao , Xiangyu Li , Malcolm Macdonald","doi":"10.1016/j.actaastro.2025.01.019","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.actaastro.2025.01.019","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Planet-displaced orbits (PDOs) play an important role in space missions such as solar observation, gravitational wave detection, and near-Earth asteroid detection. To propagate the PDOs accurately and efficiently, this paper develops an analytical solution considering the Solar central gravitational force and the time-varying third-body perturbation of the corresponding planet. First, an approximated third-body perturbation model is established based on the planet displacement angle (PDA), which is found to be the core variable affecting the evolution of the orbit. The model can describe both secular and periodic terms of the third-body perturbation accurately. Then, based on the established third-body perturbation model, a two-step procedure is developed to iteratively derive the analytical orbit propagation solution of the PDO via the Picard iteration method. The analytical solution is successfully applied to propagate the orbit in an Earth-trailing orbit case: the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA). Simulation shows that the analytical orbit propagation solution can accurately predict the orbit in both the long-time and short-time cases. The relative error is less than 0.1% in 10 years. The proposed analytical solution can be potentially useful in designing and optimizing PDOs.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":44971,"journal":{"name":"Acta Astronautica","volume":"229 ","pages":"Pages 149-160"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143173528","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Acta AstronauticaPub Date : 2025-01-11DOI: 10.1016/j.actaastro.2025.01.028
Dawei Hu , Shuaishuai Li , Xiaolei Liu , Hong Liu , Guanghui Liu
{"title":"Model-based prototype design, construction and operation of closed-loop control system of solid waste treatment unit","authors":"Dawei Hu , Shuaishuai Li , Xiaolei Liu , Hong Liu , Guanghui Liu","doi":"10.1016/j.actaastro.2025.01.028","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.actaastro.2025.01.028","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Solid waste treatment unit (SWTU) is important for waste disposal, and used in bioregenerative life support system (BLSS) for deep space exploration. It is vital for SWTU to robustly operate at a prescribed level with low power consumption. Nevertheless, traditional expertise-experience-experiment methods by trial-and-error have significant drawbacks in SWTU prototype design, construction and operation for this target. In this study, model-based approaches were carried out by system dynamics, ecological thermodynamics, parameter sensitivity analysis and dynamic behavior optimization in combination with digital simulation as follows: SWTU was firstly designed as a closed-loop control system of SWTU with a robust feedback controller developed from a proper stored-energy <em>Lyapunov</em> function. The sensitivity of six parameters in the model was analyzed and ordered. Parameters with the greatest impact were selected to further optimize the cost functions of design requirements by dynamic behavior optimization. Results of digital simulation on kinetic models were applied for model-based prototype design, construction and operation of SWTU. The 370-day experiment in BLSS showed that, when weak and strong disturbances occurred, the SWTU prototype with optimum structural and processing parameters was automatically controlled and regulated by the robust feedback controller to restore the CO<sub>2</sub> concentration in the gas phase of SWTU back to the nominal level with prescribed dynamic behavior characteristics, and reduced power consumption by 20%–35 % via calculation. The research can also give a new paradigm for design, construction and operation of SWTU prototype used for solid waste disposal in both ground and space scenarios.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":44971,"journal":{"name":"Acta Astronautica","volume":"229 ","pages":"Pages 322-332"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143174222","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Acta AstronauticaPub Date : 2025-01-11DOI: 10.1016/j.actaastro.2025.01.024
T.A. Syachina, A.G. Rudnitskiy, P.V. Mzhelskiy, M.A. Shchurov, P.R. Zapevalin
{"title":"Orbit design for the Millimetron space observatory","authors":"T.A. Syachina, A.G. Rudnitskiy, P.V. Mzhelskiy, M.A. Shchurov, P.R. Zapevalin","doi":"10.1016/j.actaastro.2025.01.024","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.actaastro.2025.01.024","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Millimetron is a space observatory for millimeter and sub-millimeter observations planned for launch around 2030. The 10-meter diameter space unfolded telescope will be cooled down to 10 K and operated in the vicinity of Lagrange point L2. Mission lifetime is 10 years and it includes astronomical observations in two modes: as a space-ground interferometer and as a single-dish telescope. This paper presents the results of the Millimetron space observatory orbit design that takes into account technical and scientific requirements and constraints. It covers the computation of suitable operational orbits, the selection of an orbit, and the transfer from Earth. Furthermore, scientific objectives are demonstrated through VLBI visibility simulation and image reconstruction. Unlike previous works that used analytical methods, this work employs numerical integration for orbital design. Based on the orbital design methods developed in this work, the exact dates for departure, halo formation, and trajectory correction were determined. Additionally, the short baseline projections and its specific dates for VLBI mode were found. The feasibility of scientific objectives were demonstrated through VLBI visibility simulation and image reconstruction.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":44971,"journal":{"name":"Acta Astronautica","volume":"229 ","pages":"Pages 128-139"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-11","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143173524","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Acta AstronauticaPub Date : 2025-01-10DOI: 10.1016/j.actaastro.2025.01.016
Dengliang Liao, Xingyi Pan, Zhengtao Wei, Ti Chen
{"title":"Assembly and reconfiguration of space structure using heterogeneous satellite swarms","authors":"Dengliang Liao, Xingyi Pan, Zhengtao Wei, Ti Chen","doi":"10.1016/j.actaastro.2025.01.016","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.actaastro.2025.01.016","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>A scheme for the on-orbit autonomous assembly and reconfiguration of the ultra-large space structure inspired by Vicsek fractal is developed in this paper. The grouped and staged strategy is applied to the structure consisting of 125 rigid modular satellites and two flexible modular ones. Each assembly action is divided into pre-assembly and docking steps, while the reconfiguration involves dispersal, unit reconfiguration and reassembly phases. The dynamics model of satellites is established based on the Clohessy-Wiltshire equations and rotation matrix. Relative position and attitude controllers are designed for the mission, where a collision avoidance controller is combined in the pre-assembly step particularly. The Lyapunov stability is analyzed and the proposed strategy is demonstrated by both numerical simulations and an experiment on air-bearing testbed.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":44971,"journal":{"name":"Acta Astronautica","volume":"229 ","pages":"Pages 166-180"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143173527","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Acta AstronauticaPub Date : 2025-01-10DOI: 10.1016/j.actaastro.2025.01.010
Justine Tansley , Nicolas Miché , Marco Bernagozzi , Simon Cahill , Anastasios Georgoulas , Matteo Santin , Rachel Forss
{"title":"Gravity effects on lower limb perfusion observed during a series of parabolic flights","authors":"Justine Tansley , Nicolas Miché , Marco Bernagozzi , Simon Cahill , Anastasios Georgoulas , Matteo Santin , Rachel Forss","doi":"10.1016/j.actaastro.2025.01.010","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.actaastro.2025.01.010","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The present observational study simultaneously measured four key factors (arterial oxygenation, superficial tissue oxygenation, peripheral skin temperature, toe systolic pressure) to determine the impact on lower limb perfusion in altered gravity conditions. 24 healthy test subjects (16 male, 8 female) took part onboard a series of parabolic flights. When comparing lower limb perfusion values to 1G (control/Earth's gravity) the study found: 1) no significant difference between arterial oxygenation values in hyper or microgravity was detected when using a pulse oximeter; 2) a significant difference in superficial tissue oxygenation in hyper and microgravity was detected by white light spectroscopy; 3) a significant difference in skin temperature of the foot was detected by thermography in hyper and microgravity; 4) an insufficient sample could be obtained for toe systolic pressure. Reduction in superficial tissue oxygenation and peripheral skin temperature in microgravity compared to 1G, potentially suggests a reduction in blood flow. White light spectroscopy and thermography devices demonstrated they functioned as usual in altered gravity conditions potentially offering a quick, reliable method of assessing the acute effects of hyper and microgravity on lower limb perfusion. These methods may be useful to predict healing potential when injuries occur and highlight early warning signs of tissue damage due to poor perfusion. However, additional work to further establish the impact on oxygen transport in the superficial tissues in both acute and sustained microgravity would be beneficial.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":44971,"journal":{"name":"Acta Astronautica","volume":"229 ","pages":"Pages 286-296"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143174320","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Acta AstronauticaPub Date : 2025-01-10DOI: 10.1016/j.actaastro.2025.01.027
Lixiang Li , Christian Ingabire , Daolun Liang , Ji Li , Yunan Zhou , Yue Jiang , Dekui Shen
{"title":"Comparative study on mechanical properties and combustion characteristics of additive manufacturing/casting composite solid propellants","authors":"Lixiang Li , Christian Ingabire , Daolun Liang , Ji Li , Yunan Zhou , Yue Jiang , Dekui Shen","doi":"10.1016/j.actaastro.2025.01.027","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.actaastro.2025.01.027","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Compared to casting process, the advantages of additive manufacturing (AM) technology, such as the elimination of mold requirements, and enhanced adaptability to complex geometries, render it highly promising for applications involving the configuration of energy release gradients, and regulation of combustion processes. To explore the disparities in mechanical performance and combustion characteristics of printed and casted propellants, a computed tomographic scanner and a universal testing machine were employed to characterize the pore structure and tensile strength. A visual online detection experimental system was established to investigate the combustion characteristics under 1–9 atm, with the condensed combustion products (CCPs) being diagnosed. Results indicate that the printed sample exhibits a lower porosity, a higher density, and a greater tensile strength. Under identical pressure, the radial flame diffusion of printed strand is weaker, whereas the axial diffusion is stronger. The burning rates and combustion temperatures of the printed strand consistently exceed those of the casted strands, with this disparity progressively widening during pressure increasing. Moreover, the printed strand exhibits enhanced combustion stability. The diagnostic results indicate that the CCPs can be categorized into smoke oxide particles (SOPs), spherical agglomerates (SAGs) and irregular agglomerates (IAGs), and the particle size of the printed strand is smaller than that of the casted strand under high pressures. The printed strand exhibits characteristic of complete combustion at lower pressures, as evidenced by the obvious high XRD peak of Al<sub>2</sub>O<sub>3</sub> and the higher combustion efficiency. The AM process reduces the porosity of propellant, thereby intensifying the consumption rate of reactants, and increasing the combustion intensity. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of the application of AM on the solid propellants.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":44971,"journal":{"name":"Acta Astronautica","volume":"229 ","pages":"Pages 43-54"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142967833","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Acta AstronauticaPub Date : 2025-01-09DOI: 10.1016/j.actaastro.2025.01.026
Juan Miguel Sánchez-Lozano , Eloy Peña-Asensio , Valentin T. Bickel , David A. Kring
{"title":"Prioritizing astronaut traverses on the Moon: A multi-criteria decision-making approach","authors":"Juan Miguel Sánchez-Lozano , Eloy Peña-Asensio , Valentin T. Bickel , David A. Kring","doi":"10.1016/j.actaastro.2025.01.026","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.actaastro.2025.01.026","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Properly designed astronaut traverses are decisive for the science return and safety of crewed lunar missions to the Moon. Their development and planning are challenged by numerous parameters involved and the difficulty of determining their relative importance. Investigating the potential of Multi-Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) techniques for lunar exploration within the context of Artemis III, this paper demonstrates the effective application of the well-established Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) and the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS). AHP is utilized to derive weights for evaluating criteria, informed by inputs from scientists and engineers, emphasizing the geological interest and temperature of Permanently Shadowed Regions (PSR), followed by the slope profile of the traverse, although weighting is conditioned by expert background. TOPSIS is then applied to objectively rank astronaut traverses to PSRs at sites 001 and 004, situated on the ‘Connecting Ridge’ region. This analysis not only identifies a particular traverse from site 001 that is significantly superior to others but also conducts a sensitivity analysis to assess the impact of challenging-to-quantify criteria such as geological interest. These findings underscore the considerable potential of MCDM techniques to enhance decision-making in lunar missions, thereby promising to improve the efficacy, science return, and safety of future Artemis missions through a systematic approach to complex trade-off decision landscapes.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":44971,"journal":{"name":"Acta Astronautica","volume":"229 ","pages":"Pages 77-89"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142975196","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Design and experimental verification of multi-tethered spacecraft formation encircled to capture small celestial body system","authors":"Yu Yang, Yixin Huang, Hao Tian, Yuchen Zhu, Changzheng Qian, Yang Zhao","doi":"10.1016/j.actaastro.2025.01.015","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.actaastro.2025.01.015","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper proposes a method of capturing small celestial bodies (SCB) by multi-tethered spacecraft formation (MTSF), and the system design and experimental verification are carried out. This method can be used in SCB exploration deep sampling to provide penetration force between the drilling equipment and the star soil. Firstly, the composition and operation flow of the encirclement capture system is described, and the encirclement load unit is designed. The dual quaternion describes the rigid body position and attitude coupling motion, and the Arbitrary Lagrange–Euler and the Absolute Nodal Coordinate Formulation (ALE-ANCF) method describes the variable length tether motion. The dynamic model of the variable length MTSF system is established. Finally, a hybrid formation test platform of air-floating node (AFN) and unmanned air vehicle (UAV) is constructed to simulate the capture process of a three-node spacecraft on the scaled model of a SCB. The results show that the AFN and the UAV cooperatively carry the tether retracting and releasing device to form the encirclement configuration and converge to the desired position and attitude. Finally, the tether configuration realizes the slinging of the SCB scale model, which verifies the feasibility of the encirclement method.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":44971,"journal":{"name":"Acta Astronautica","volume":"229 ","pages":"Pages 65-76"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"142975149","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Acta AstronauticaPub Date : 2025-01-09DOI: 10.1016/j.actaastro.2025.01.018
J.W. Elmer, J.S. Bellino
{"title":"Induction melting, casting, and weldability of a group IAB iron meteorite","authors":"J.W. Elmer, J.S. Bellino","doi":"10.1016/j.actaastro.2025.01.018","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.actaastro.2025.01.018","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Future construction of large-scale space structures will need to exploit natural space resources for raw materials such as iron from asteroids, which is expected to be a key element due to its availability in near-Earth objects. Although the relative availability of iron-nickel asteroids makes them attractive candidates for space manufacturing, they contain defects and inhomogeneous concentrations of elements such as carbon, phosphorous, and sulfur, along with brittle intermetallic phases, cracks, and voids, that limits their usefulness in their native state. Refinement of the meteoritic metal microstructure and chemistry will be required to render them useful as structural elements that can be fabricated by casting, thermomechanical processing, or welding. This study investigates the vacuum induction melting and casting of a Canyon Diablo Group 1AB-MG coarse octahedrite meteorite demonstrating, as a first step, that cast material can be produced with a refined and more homogeneous microstructure. However, additional metallurgical refinement is still needed to reduce the phosphorous and sulphur content to produce high quality meteoritic steels or alloys for space construction.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":44971,"journal":{"name":"Acta Astronautica","volume":"229 ","pages":"Pages 578-590"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143173864","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Acta AstronauticaPub Date : 2025-01-09DOI: 10.1016/j.actaastro.2025.01.023
Xiucong Sun , Yuan Wang , Jianli Su , Jian Li , Ming Xu , Shengzhou Bai
{"title":"Relative orbit transfer using constant-vector thrust acceleration","authors":"Xiucong Sun , Yuan Wang , Jianli Su , Jian Li , Ming Xu , Shengzhou Bai","doi":"10.1016/j.actaastro.2025.01.023","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.actaastro.2025.01.023","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study proposes a rapid algorithm to achieve relative orbit transfer based on constant-vector thrust acceleration control, where the magnitude and direction of the thrust acceleration are constant in the tangential–normal–out-of-plane (TNH) frame. Based on the presented linearized thrust-control matrix, which is used to construct the first-order relationships between the relative position, velocity, and the constant-vector thrust acceleration, two analytical approximate solutions are presented for two types of relative orbit transfer problems: the one-vector thrust acceleration solution to the relative orbit transfer problem, which only requires the final relative position, and the double-vector thrust acceleration solution to the relative orbit transfer problem, which requires the final relative position and velocity. Furthermore, for the cases where the magnitude constraint of the thrust provided by the engine is required, fast-iterative algorithms are proposed to obtain the one-vector acceleration solution and the double-vector acceleration solution that satisfy the magnitude constraint strictly. The simulation results showed that the proposed methods are rapid, accurate, and easy to implement, demonstrating their wide application potential for engineering practice.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":44971,"journal":{"name":"Acta Astronautica","volume":"229 ","pages":"Pages 715-735"},"PeriodicalIF":3.1,"publicationDate":"2025-01-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143173859","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"物理与天体物理","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}