Design and Control of Growth Adaptable Artificial Gravity Space Habitat
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2017, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Inc, AIAA. All rights reserved. We seek to solve 5 unsolved problems in space: Providing gravity, food, radiation protection, and a growable technology that enlarges the habitat as economics allow. A full-scale center for space research is needed to keep the gravity gradient across the human body less than 6%, to avoid nausea and other health issues. The artificial gravity is provided by centripetal forces in a spinning habitat. The agricultural space occupies the low gravity part of the habitat. The radiation protection requires 5m of regolith from ISRU. The habitat will be roomy and research can determine the level of gravity required for human health, as ONLY a large space habitat can do (the plan grows to 225m radius yielding only 1% gravity gradient). The tensegrity paradigm is used for the design of the growth adaptable space structure. The mass required to sustain the centrifugal forces and the atmospheric pressure is minimized using the tensegrity structural paradigm. The transient dynamics of the structure during pressurization is shown. The growth strategy is planned for continuous occupancy of humans and agriculture. A control scheme is provided to stabilize the sun-pointing attitude, while spinning at a desired rate for artificial gravity. Numerical simulations are used to demonstrate the efficacy of the control laws for the space habitat system.
