Non-Cooperative Space Target De-Tumbling Approach Using Multiple High-Temperature Superconducting Coils

Aiming at de-tumbling a non-cooperative space target safely and efficiently, an eddy brake approach utilizing multiple high-temperature superconducting (HTS) coils is proposed in this paper. The configuration design criteria of HTS coil are constructed first to guarantee the validity of the eddy brake method. Then, considering that each HTS coil is mounted on a servicing satellite, the desired position and attitude of each servicing satellite is calculated to meet the design criteria. Next, the eddy brake process is analyzed, where how to generate and keep the desired magnetic field is considered, and then the angular velocity decay process of the target is presented. Concretely, a nonlinear control law utilizing the consensus theory is adopted to achieve and keep the desired formation of the multi-satellite system. Finally, numerical simulations are carried out to testify the proposed method using different number servicing satellites, and the simulation results verify the effectiveness of the proposed method.