J4 Pointing Control of Truss Structure by Artificial Thermal Expansion.

Abstract

To meet advanced science missions, large and precise support structures such as truss structures are needed. In this paper, pointing control of a truss structure is discussed. To control the truss structure, thermal expansion of truss members is utilized instead of mechanical actuators. Heaters are equipped to truss members so that the thermal expansion of the members is controlled by heaters. PI control is applied to an experimental model which is box truss with 1.9m height. Through experiments, it is shown that the truss structure can be controlled with good accuracy, for example, within 3 arcsec error.