2,382 research outputs found

    Investigation of a hopping transporter concept for lunar exploration

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    Performance and dynamic characteristics determined for hopping transporter for lunar exploratio

    MIT's interferometer CST testbed

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    The MIT Space Engineering Research Center (SERC) has developed a controlled structures technology (CST) testbed based on one design for a space-based optical interferometer. The role of the testbed is to provide a versatile platform for experimental investigation and discovery of CST approaches. In particular, it will serve as the focus for experimental verification of CSI methodologies and control strategies at SERC. The testbed program has an emphasis on experimental CST--incorporating a broad suite of actuators and sensors, active struts, system identification, passive damping, active mirror mounts, and precision component characterization. The SERC testbed represents a one-tenth scaled version of an optical interferometer concept based on an inherently rigid tetrahedral configuration with collecting apertures on one face. The testbed consists of six 3.5 meter long truss legs joined at four vertices and is suspended with attachment points at three vertices. Each aluminum leg has a 0.2 m by 0.2 m by 0.25 m triangular cross-section. The structure has a first flexible mode at 31 Hz and has over 50 global modes below 200 Hz. The stiff tetrahedral design differs from similar testbeds (such as the JPL Phase B) in that the structural topology is closed. The tetrahedral design minimizes structural deflections at the vertices (site of optical components for maximum baseline) resulting in reduced stroke requirements for isolation and pointing of optics. Typical total light path length stability goals are on the order of lambda/20, with a wavelength of light, lambda, of roughly 500 nanometers. It is expected that active structural control will be necessary to achieve this goal in the presence of disturbances

    MIT Space Engineering Research Center

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    The Space Engineering Research Center (SERC) at MIT, started in Jul. 1988, has completed two years of research. The Center is approaching the operational phase of its first testbed, is midway through the construction of a second testbed, and is in the design phase of a third. We presently have seven participating faculty, four participating staff members, ten graduate students, and numerous undergraduates. This report reviews the testbed programs, individual graduate research, other SERC activities not funded by the Center, interaction with non-MIT organizations, and SERC milestones. Published papers made possible by SERC funding are included at the end of the report

    Active Control Stabilization of High Power Rocket

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    High power rockets could become dynamically unstable due to outside disturbances after takeoff. The instability is augmented when the rocket is slow off the launch rail, which happens when the thrust-to-weight ratio is less than 5:1. Due to these reasons, the objective of this project was to design and build an active control system that will make sure the rocket follows a straight path all the way to apogee. This will be done through a model-based design approach, in which a 6DOF mathematical model of the flight dynamics will be created

    Modular space station phase B extension period executive summary

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    A narrative summary is presented of technical, programmatic, and planning information developed during the space station definition study extension period. The modular space station is emphasized, but tasks pertaining to shuttle sorties missions and information management advanced development are included. A series of program options considering technical, schedule, and programmatic alternatives to the baseline program are defined and evaluated

    Passive-performance, analysis, and upgrades of a 1-ton seismic attenuation system

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    The 10m Prototype facility at the Albert-Einstein-Institute (AEI) in Hanover, Germany, employs three large seismic attenuation systems to reduce mechanical motion. The AEI Seismic-Attenuation-System (AEI-SAS) uses mechanical anti-springs in order to achieve resonance frequencies below 0.5Hz. This system provides passive isolation from ground motion by a factor of about 400 in the horizontal direction at 4Hz and in the vertical direction at 9Hz. The presented isolation performance is measured under vacuum conditions using a combination of commercial and custom-made inertial sensors. Detailed analysis of this performance led to the design and implementation of tuned dampers to mitigate the effect of the unavoidable higher order modes of the system. These dampers reduce RMS motion substantially in the frequency range between 10 and 100Hz in 6 degrees of freedom. The results presented here demonstrate that the AEI-SAS provides substantial passive isolation at all the fundamental mirror-suspension resonances

    Digital controller design: Analysis of the annular suspension pointing system

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    The annular suspension and pointing system (ASPS) a payload auxiliary pointing device of the space shuttle is briefly described along with the function of the digital controller. The equations of motion of a simplified plan planar model of the ASPS are derived. Results of computer simulations are discussed

    Relevance of the weak equivalence principle and experiments to test it: lessons from the past and improvements expected in space

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    Tests of the Weak Equivalence Principle (WEP) probe the foundations of physics. Ever since Galileo in the early 1600s, WEP tests have attracted some of the best experimentalists of any time. Progress has come in bursts, each stimulated by the introduction of a new technique: the torsion balance, signal modulation by Earth rotation, the rotating torsion balance. Tests for various materials in the field of the Earth and the Sun have found no violation to the level of about 1 part in 1e13. A different technique, Lunar Laser Ranging (LLR), has reached comparable precision. Today, both laboratory tests and LLR have reached a point when improving by a factor of 10 is extremely hard. The promise of another quantum leap in precision rests on experiments performed in low Earth orbit. The Microscope satellite, launched in April 2016 and currently taking data, aims to test WEP in the field of Earth to 1e-15, a 100-fold improvement possible thanks to a driving signal in orbit almost 500 times stronger than for torsion balances on ground. The `Galileo Galilei' (GG) experiment, by combining the advantages of space with those of the rotating torsion balance, aims at a WEP test 100 times more precise than Microscope, to 1e-17. A quantitative comparison of the key issues in the two experiments is presented, along with recent experimental measurements relevant for GG. Early results from Microscope, reported at a conference in March 2017, show measurement performance close to the expectations and confirm the key role of rotation with the advantage (unique to space) of rotating the whole spacecraft. Any non-null result from Microscope would be a major discovery and call for urgent confirmation; with 100 times better precision GG could settle the matter and provide a deeper probe of the foundations of physics.Comment: To appear: Physics Letters A, special issue in memory of Professor Vladimir Braginsky, 2017. Available online: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.physleta.2017.09.02

    Flight dynamics and control analysis of the centaur vehicle /atlas/centaur ac-5/

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    Flight dynamics and control analysis of Centaur vehicl
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