SPACECRAFT, TETHER, POSTURE CONTROLLING SYSTEM, AND POSITION CONTROLLING SYSTEM

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To compensate the blemish of a formation flight moored by a tether, and acquire the posture and position information of respective spacecrafts in the formation flight with a favorable precision.;SOLUTION: The tether 401 is used for compensating a failure in a communication system and the posture controlling system in either one of the spacecrafts. In addition, an optical fiber is used for the cores of a reel mechanism 127 to be arranged at an arbitrary position on the tether 401, and the tether 401. A signal controlling section 103 decides the position information by measuring a distance between the spacecrafts by the measurement of time for reciprocating the optical fiber. By the time management, the management of a timing signal is facilitated, and the ensuring of the simultaneity of the position information for respective spacecrafts performing the formation flight becomes possible. Also, an inter-spacecraft communication of a large capacity at a high speed between respective spacecrafts is realized, and the signal controlling section 103 can grasp relative attitude angles for respective spacecrafts as well by the communication. In addition, by using the optical fiber, the posture of the spacecraft does not require to be in the directed to the spacecraft with which the communication needs to be performed.;COPYRIGHT: (C)2005,JPO&NCIPI