Advanced Control Evaluation for Structures (ACES) Programs

The ACES programs are a series of past, present, and future activities in the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) Ground Facility for Large Space Structure Control Verification (GF/LSSCV). The main objectives of the ACES programs are to implement control techniques on a series of complex dynamical systems, to determine the control/structure interaction for the control techniques and to provide a national facility in which dynamics and control verification can be effected. The paper´s focus is on these objectives and how they are implemented under various engineering and economic constraints. The paper also delineates the future plans that will be effected in upcoming ACES programs and how these plans are synergistic relative to NASA and DOD projects.