An aerobraking maneuver performed with a tethered system has the benefit of increasing the drag for a given center of mass orbit by dropping the lower subsatellite into the denser atmosphere. While this concept has received significant attention in the literature, the exact means of controlling the attitude prior to the aerobraking fly-through has not been adequately treated. In particular, a scheme for repeated passes in elliptical orbits has not been developed, which would be required, for example, in a debris elimination system. This work uses tether reeling during the exoatmospheric flight in order to control the tether libration to target a desired state prior to the aerobraking trajectory. The design of the control law requires numerical solution of nonlinear equations, but newly developed analytics provide an estimate that reduces computational time and increases the robustness of the algorithm. The results show that the nearly periodic state that is required for successive passes can be achieved for practical tether lengths and power requirements.

通过系留系统进行的空中制动演习具有以下优势：将下层卫星降落到更稠密的大气层中，从而增加了给定质心轨道的阻力。尽管这个概念在文献中受到了极大的关注，但是在进行空中制动飞越之前控制姿态的确切方法尚未得到充分的处理。特别地，还没有开发出用于在椭圆轨道上重复通过的方案，例如在碎片清除系统中将需要这种方案。这项工作在大气层飞行过程中使用了系绳绕线系统，以控制系绳释放，使其在气制动道之前达到所需状态。控制律的设计需要非线性方程的数值解，但是新开发的分析提供了一种估计，可以减少计算时间并提高算法的鲁棒性。结果表明，对于实际的系绳长度和功率要求，可以实现连续通过所需的近乎周期性的状态。