Coupling Effect of Nonlinear Stiffness of Tape Spring Hinges and Flexible Deformation of Panels during Orbit Maneuvers

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

It would be reasonable to use the results of this research for creating some recomendations for optimal SC orbit manoeuvring from solar panels safety providing point of view. For example recomendations to SC propulsion system modes (thrust and time of operating) etc.

There are two broken references on pages 3 and 6.

The paper considers actual issues concerning coupling effect between the nonlinear TSHs and the flexible panels generating vibration which affects the operational stability of SC.

There is a good overview  as well as system modelling chapters. However only satellite rotation by gyroscopes is considering as an orbit maneuvers. To strength the paper SC station keeping or orbit raising by propulsion system could be also considered.

There are some broken references "Error! Reference source not found.." on pages 3 and 6. There is misprint on page 10:

"Therefore, therefore the coupling effect should be considered in precise control of the attitude of the deployment..."

Recommendation is following: the paper could be published as it is after misprints correction. However it could be strengthen if possible effects from operating propulsion system during orbit changing will be also taken into account.

There are two "therefore" in a row on the bottom of page 10.

 

Author Response

Thank you for your comments, the reply to comments is attached.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

The paper studies coupling effect of nonlinear stiffness of tape spring hinges and flexible deformation of panel during orbit maneuvers. Algorithms are presented and simulations are provided to verify their investigation. However, there are still some problems to be clarified. In the following detail my comments:

1. The coordinate system in Fig. 1 is too small and too blurred. Please make it more clear.
2. The symbol aster "*" should not appear in equations. This is usually resulted from direct copy of computer codes but it is not a good writing style. Usually, the representation of the multiplication symbol is either omitted, like "a=bc", or presented by a small dot, like $a = b \dot c$. The symbol of aster is usually reserved for convolution of two functions. 
3. The symbol $\phi$ is said to be the "rotation angle". However, rotation is a general term and it is meaningless without mentioning the rotation axis. Hence, a more clear definition (perhaps depicted by a figure) is suggested. 
4. Moreover, there are jargons for the rotation of satellite solar panels. The three rotations are commonly named "flapping", "lead-lag", and "pitching". For satellite panels, however, "flapping angle" is usually called "trim angle", and "pitching angle" is usually called "tracking angle".
5. Some works done by  H. Flashner and M. Borre are recommended to authors. Flashner and Borre also investigated the modal behavior of a satellite and its solar panels
6. Authors are suggested to provide the equation for Fig. 4. Not every reader is familiar with RecurDyn, but most of them should be familiar with Mathematics. 
7. Is it possible to add an analytical analysis or approximation of the work? Although numerical simulations do provide some information of the work investigated in the paper, how do authors know that the numerical results are correct? Analytical analysis or approximation should be a good basis to verify the numerical results. Or, at least, authors should compare their simulations of some simple cases with those whose answers are already known to verify their work.

Author Response

Thank you for your professional comments, the reply to comment is attached.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

The questions and errors in the previous version are either clarified or corrected. The current version looks fine and I have no further questions.