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Space Technology 7 Disturbance Reduction System - precision control flight ValidationThe NASA New Millennium Program Space Technology 7 (ST7) project will validate technology for precision spacecraft control. The Disturbance Reduction System (DRS) will be part of the European Space Agency's LISA Pathfinder project. The DRS will control the position of the spacecraft relative to a reference to an accuracy of one nanometer over time scales of several thousand seconds. To perform the control, the spacecraft will use a new colloid thruster technology. The thrusters will operate over the range of 5 to 30 micro-Newtons with precision of 0.1 micro- Newton. The thrust will be generated by using a high electric field to extract charged droplets of a conducting colloid fluid and accelerating them with a precisely adjustable voltage. The control reference will be provided by the European LISA Technology Package, which will include two nearly freefloating test masses. The test mass positions and orientations will be measured using a capacitance bridge. The test mass position and attitude will be adjustable using electrostatically applied forces and torques. The DRS will control the spacecraft position with respect to one test mass while minimizing disturbances on the second test mass. The dynamic control system will cover eighteen degrees of freedom: six for each of the test masses and six for the spacecraft. After launch in late 2009 to a low Earth orbit, the LISA Pathfinder spacecraft will be maneuvered to a halo orbit about the Earth-Sun L1 Lagrange point for operations.
Document ID
20060043867
Acquisition Source
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Document Type
Conference Paper
External Source(s)
Authors
Carmain, Andrew J.
Dunn, Charles
Folkner, William
Hruby, Vlad
Spence, Doug
O'Donnell, James
Markley, Landis
Maghami, Peiman
Hsu, Oscar
Demmons, N.
Roy, T.
Gasdaska, C.
Young, J.
Connolly, W.
McCormick, R.
Gasdaska, C.
Date Acquired
August 23, 2013
Publication Date
March 4, 2005
Meeting Information
Meeting: IEEE Aerospace Conference
Location: Big Sky, MT
Country: United States
Start Date: March 4, 2005
End Date: March 11, 2005
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other
Keywords
microthrusters
colloid
drag-free
New Millennium Program Space

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