Pointing, Control, and Stabilization of Solar Dynamic System on a Space Station

This paper presents the design and analysis of a drive system to soft couple the solar dynamic (SD) power systems from interaction with the structure of a single keel Space Station. The drive system features a low bandwidth controller that attenuates the dominant transverse boom torsional mode. The objective is to present some preliminary results. The pointing of the massive SD system is sensitive to induced disturbance forces. Minimizing the effects of these disturbances on SD pointing is essential in achieving desired pointing accuracy. An integral loop is included to attenuate low frequency disturbances. Beside the integration of the two controllers, the viable concept presented in this paper utilizes sun sensors mounted out-board of the alpha joint on the left and right transverse booms. Tracking error is minimized by using the pointing error from the sun in the control logic for alpha drive slewing. The system is capable of achieving good stability robustness, performance, and acceptable disturbance rejection.