Jorge Simón Aznar

Nationality: Spanish
Funding entity and Program: European Innovation Council (EIC) Pathfinder Programme – European Commission

PhD Thesis

Dynamics and Control of Spinning Electrodynamic Tethers Applied to Space Sustainability

Supervisors

Gonzalo Sánchez Arriaga (UC3M) & Behrad Vatankhahghadim (UC3M)

Abstract

The proposed PhD research aims to advance the design, modeling, and control of electrodynamic tether (EDT) systems to enable propellant‐free orbital maneuvers and in‐orbit services. The proposed research plans to develop dynamic models for spinning EDTs with different degrees of fidelity with emphasis on configurations where the tether spins outside the orbital plane, a configuration that is expected to maximize the changes in key orbital elements. To achieve these objectives, analytical analysis and advanced numerical studies will be combined. An important aspect of this work is the development of a GNC tool designed to be integrated into the BETsMA v2.0 software, contributing to its upcoming version v3.0. This tool will model complex tether dynamics, capture realistic orbital perturbations, and incorporate adaptive control algorithms to optimize the EDT spin plane orientation, current regulation, and the reel-in/reel-out capability.

The thesis will be developed in the framework of the project E.T.COMPACT, founded by the European Innovation Council through the Pathfinder program.