Modeling and Analysis of Deployment Dynamics for Circular Membrane Solar Array of Lunar Explorer

The new version of American lunar lander carries a new circular membrane solar array with high deployment/closing ratio and high power/mass ratio. However, circular membrane solar array also has characteristics of rigid-flexible coupling, difficulty in dynamics modeling and analysis, complex movement of thin membrane under lunar circumstance and high deployment precision. In response, a numerical dynamics model of solar array structure is established in this paper to analyze deployment dynamics features. Absolute nodal coordinate formulation is used to model flexible components and thin membrane. Two-step detection method is employed to deal with the complex contact/collision between thin membranes. Solar array is driven by joint rotation trajectory based on Bézier curves. Trajectory of the pivot panel is planned and tracked by forward-feedback joint control to improve the deployment positioning accuracy and suppress the residual vibration. The proposed driving strategy is then applied to the solar array numerical model based on NASA prototype. Numerical simulations have demonstrated that circular membrane solar array can be well-ordered and accurately deployed, and the residual vibration can be effectively suppressed.