The need to efficiently identify the changing inertial properties of on-orbit spacecraft is becoming more critical as
satellite on-orbit services, such as refueling and repairing, become increasingly aggressive and complex. This need stems
from the fact that a spacecraft's control system relies on the knowledge of the spacecraft's inertia parameters. However,
the inertia parameters may change during flight for reasons such as fuel usage, payload deployment or retrieval, and
docking/capturing operations. New Mexico State University's Dynamics, Controls, and Robotics Research Group has
proposed a robotics-based method of identifying unknown spacecraft inertia properties1. Previous methods require firing
known thrusts then measuring the thrust, and the velocity and acceleration changes. The new method utilizes the
concept of momentum conservation, while employing a robotic device powered by renewable energy to excite the state
of the satellite. Thus, it requires no fuel usage or force and acceleration measurements. The method has been well
studied in theory and demonstrated by simulation. However its experimental validation is challenging because a 6-
degree-of-freedom motion in a zero-gravity condition is required. This paper presents an on-going effort to test the
inertia identification method onboard the NASA zero-G aircraft. The design and capability of the test unit will be
discussed in addition to the flight data. This paper also introduces the design and development of an airbearing based test
used to partially validate the method, in addition to the approach used to obtain reference value for the test system's
inertia parameters that can be used for comparison with the algorithm results.
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