Optimal control of the deployment process of solar wings on spacecraft

The optimal attitude control problem of spacecraft during the stretching process of solar wings is investigated in this paper. The dynamical equations of the nonholonomic system are derived from the conservation principle of the angular momentum of the multibody system. Attitude control of the spacecraft with internal motion is reduced to a nonholonomic motion planning problem. The spacecraft attitude control is transformed into the steering problem for a drift free control system. The optimal solution for steering a spacecraft with solar wings is presented. The controlled motion of spacecraft is simulated for two cases. The numerical results demonstrate the effectiveness of the optimal control approach.