An approach to simulating the dynamics of deployment of large solar arrays on spacecraft

This paper discusses the dynamics of solar array deployment, which is one of the key dynamic operations performed by a spacecraft. It provides the rationale for the need to analyze dynamics of solar array deployment as early as during the initial design phases. It provides the actual kinematic diagrams of deployment with indication of structural elements of the deployment system. The paper discusses approaches to mathematical simulation of the solar array deployment process based on analytical mechanics methods taking into account specific features of the system that is to be simulated: design of the solar array and properties of its individual elements, its deployment kinematics, equipment for initiating panel turns, etc. The paper proposes a methodological approach to simulating deployment of large solar arrays on a spacecraft with universal generation of the computational model, which is convenient for development of efficient numerical algorithms and high-speed software implementations. This approach is based on representing the spacecraft and solar array structures as a spatial structurally-complex system of bodies performing relative motion under the action of specific force factors. For each body a motion equation is written on the basis of general theorems of dynamics. The action of other elements of the solar array on a selected body is taken into account in the form of constraint reaction forces and torques. In order to determine them, special equations are formed, the form and structure of which are driven by the design of joints between individual elements of the solar array. The proposed approach has a vast adaptive potential, which makes it possible to describe various designs and deployment systems. It permits to determine principal integral parameters of the solar array deployment process.