Similarity Analysis of an Air-bearing Simulator Reproducing Drag-free Control Dynamics

This paper introduces a design model of the ground spacecraft simulator to emulate the drag-free satellite. The simulator model is composed of an air bearing testbed and two inverted pendulums. On the basic of equivalent mass and equivalent stiffness, the dynamic model of the simulator is derived from the Euler-Lagrange method. And the dynamic equivalence conditions between two systems are expressed as the scaling laws. Subsequently, the similarity analysis is performed by using analytic hierarchy process. The similarity elements and corresponding characteristic variables are put forward to establish the proper evaluation model system. Finally, the similarity analysis of ground model simulation is given. The high system similarity degree can prove the rationality and effectiveness of the design method.