Spaceship Leak Localization Based on the Attitude Response and Filtering Algorithm

The spaceship orbiting in a near-circle Low-Earth-Orbit is subjected to impacts of hyper velocity particles such as micro meteorites and space debris. The pressurized wall of the ship may be perforated and this could threaten the safety of the flight. This article puts emphasis on presenting a new method to estimate the leak extent and localize air leaks on the spaceship from the view of soft measurement, based on the spacecraft attitude and rate behavior produced by a mass expulsion force of the leaking air. This method utilizes the present sensors data thoroughly, such as inner pressure, attitude and speed information. The location and extent of the leak will be got through the application of filtering method and the analysis of dynamics, kinetics and thermodynamics of the spaceship. Numerical simulation combined with an assumed model of spaceship is given in this paper. The result shows that the filtering methods the new localization method based on the attitude response are effective.