Virginia Tech
    • Log in
    View Item 
    •   VTechWorks Home
    • ETDs: Virginia Tech Electronic Theses and Dissertations
    • Doctoral Dissertations
    • View Item
    •   VTechWorks Home
    • ETDs: Virginia Tech Electronic Theses and Dissertations
    • Doctoral Dissertations
    • View Item
    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

    Dynamics and Control of a Tensegrity System in Low-Earth Orbit

    Thumbnail
    View/Open
    Rye_Md_D_2017.pdf (5.035Mb)
    Downloads: 819
    Date
    2017-05-03
    Author
    Rye, Maria del Carmen
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    Abstract
    Tensegrity is the name given to a system of interconnected bars and tendons that can form a flexible self-standing structure. Its flexibility is due to the ability of the bars to move near-independent to each other, movement that can be caused by controlled tension forces in the tendons or external forces such as gravity. However, a balance of sorts must be maintained - if a tendon were to go slack, the entire structure could become unstable and collapse on itself. This thesis looks at placing a tensegrity structure in orbit around the Earth. As a spacecraft's orbit is moved further away from the Earth, the strength of the Earth's gravity field lessens. Ideally, such a flexible structure would be placed far enough away from the Earth so that the gravity field would have too weak an impact on its individual elements to cause major distortions. However, the author recognizes that altitudes below 2,000 km, where the Earth's gravity field is still very prevalent, are the most common altitudes used by orbiting spacecraft today. The goal of this thesis is to analyze the distortions of the tensegrity structure at these lower altitudes, and also look at methods for controlling these distortions.
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/10919/77584
    Collections
    • Doctoral Dissertations [15924]

    If you believe that any material in VTechWorks should be removed, please see our policy and procedure for Requesting that Material be Amended or Removed. All takedown requests will be promptly acknowledged and investigated.

    Virginia Tech | University Libraries | Contact Us
     

     

    VTechWorks

    AboutPoliciesHelp

    Browse

    All of VTechWorksCommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjectsThis CollectionBy Issue DateAuthorsTitlesSubjects

    My Account

    Log inRegister

    Statistics

    View Usage Statistics

    If you believe that any material in VTechWorks should be removed, please see our policy and procedure for Requesting that Material be Amended or Removed. All takedown requests will be promptly acknowledged and investigated.

    Virginia Tech | University Libraries | Contact Us