Optimisation of Assembly Sequences for Modular Solar Power Satellites Under Coupled Orbit-Attitude Dynamics

Optimisation of Assembly Sequences for Modular Solar Power Satellites Under Coupled Orbit-Attitude Dynamics | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Optimisation of Assembly Sequences for Modular Solar Power Satellites Under Coupled Orbit-Attitude Dynamics Maria Anna Laino, Massimiliano Vasile This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-8941982/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Under Revision Version 1 posted 4 You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract The scale of future space structures is expected to exceed the dimensional and mass limits of launcher fairings, requiring large modular systems to be assembled directly in orbit. During this process, the progressive addition of modules continuously alters the mass distribution, inertia tensor, and sensitivity to environmental disturbances, consequently modifying the orbit-attitude dynamics of the evolving structure. Accounting for these effects is therefore essential when planning assembly operations, particularly for large-area platforms such as solar power satellites. This work presents a dynamics-aware framework for planning the spacecraft assembly sequence in which the order of module installation is selected by explicitly considering the coupled orbit–attitude response while the structure remains uncontrolled. Orbital motion is modelled using a perturbed two-body formulation including Earth’s oblateness, solar radiation pressure, and third-bodygravitational effects, and attitude evolution follows rigid-body dynamics driven by gravity-gradient and radiation torques. The assembly process is formulated incrementally, adding a fixed number of modules at each step through a greedy optimisation that minimises a cost function based on the maximum attitude deviation while satisfying feasibility constraints. The framework is demonstrated on the ESA SOLARIS and SPS-ALPHA concepts and assessed in both geostationary and geosynchronous Laplace-plane orbits.Comparisons with non-optimised sequences and reduced-perturbation models show that assembly order and environmental disturbances strongly influence the dynamical behaviour. The proposed approach identifies sequences that reduce the resulting dynamical response while remaining computationally tractable forstructures composed of thousands of modules. In-Orbit Assembly Assembly Sequence Planning Incremental Greedy Assembly Assembly Dynamics Coupled Orbit-Attitude Dynamics Solar Power Satellite Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Supplementary Files graphicalabstract.pdf Cite Share Download PDF Status: Under Revision Version 1 posted Editorial decision: Revision requested 24 Feb, 2026 Editor assigned by journal 24 Feb, 2026 Submission checks completed at journal 24 Feb, 2026 First submitted to journal 22 Feb, 2026 You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-8941982","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":596425359,"identity":"cefbc03c-bc44-4456-bc65-a0404ecb9adf","order_by":0,"name":"Maria Anna Laino","email":"data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAZAAAAAyAQMAAABI0h/eAAAABlBMVEX///8AAABVwtN+AAAACXBIWXMAAA7EAAAOxAGVKw4bAAABAElEQVRIie3RsUrDQBzH8d8RyBSc/yWBPoGQIISKKXmVfwhcFxdxqVtASJd7gG6+SsJBJ6VroCC6dHKw24kOJhUHh2s7Otx3u4PP/e84wOX6pzXABD4gXvZL+tmNjxAaiBeDgeAU8nuyTyeR88XTa2NA47PwfnX3YZ7HeViJdwN9YSPp4yxuFSipo5XcBHybqKjxRgo6tZJGoglAoqbrdANmoYgRAjqzkvUW7RcoH8iNYc574n0eJJ2E7qcUA0HAXPTEH6bYL9ZtoaOYyppkGQaSS9UV9aWKZ/bnr6W3e5tn04dl2e5MxtPFstSdmV8llc3s+/sHojr+kS6Xy+U62DcjjU6XGBAMNQAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==","orcid":"","institution":"University of Strathclyde","correspondingAuthor":true,"prefix":"","firstName":"Maria","middleName":"Anna","lastName":"Laino","suffix":""},{"id":596425363,"identity":"d12f9293-d4e1-4181-902b-4e06eb8600a5","order_by":1,"name":"Massimiliano Vasile","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"University of Strathclyde","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Massimiliano","middleName":"","lastName":"Vasile","suffix":""}],"badges":[],"createdAt":"2026-02-23 00:39:06","currentVersionCode":1,"declarations":"","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8941982/v1","doiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-8941982/v1","draftVersion":[],"editorialEvents":[],"editorialNote":"","failedWorkflow":false,"files":[{"id":104780131,"identity":"12cf8996-23cc-45a3-87fd-ee2391bc74c7","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-03-17 07:50:52","extension":"pdf","order_by":1,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"manuscript-pdf","size":8039688,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"nonlinearjournal.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8941982/v1_covered_b26057c7-c399-4c86-a88b-a3088b4cb293.pdf"},{"id":104422480,"identity":"42d945b1-e63d-44e2-ae0d-4ac63f015e3d","added_by":"auto","created_at":"2026-03-11 14:08:05","extension":"pdf","order_by":0,"title":"","display":"","copyAsset":false,"role":"supplement","size":183527,"visible":true,"origin":"","legend":"","description":"","filename":"graphicalabstract.pdf","url":"https://assets-eu.researchsquare.com/files/rs-8941982/v1/699fb7ed5e3b1ec085763db4.pdf"}],"financialInterests":"No competing interests reported.","formattedTitle":"Optimisation of Assembly Sequences for Modular Solar Power Satellites Under Coupled Orbit-Attitude Dynamics","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":false,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"nonlinear-dynamics","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"nody","sideBox":"Learn more about [Nonlinear Dynamics](https://www.springer.com/journal/11071)","snPcode":"11071","submissionUrl":"https://submission.nature.com/new-submission/11071/3","title":"Nonlinear Dynamics","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"stoa","reportingPortfolio":"Springer Hybrid","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false},"keywords":"In-Orbit Assembly, Assembly Sequence Planning, Incremental Greedy Assembly, Assembly Dynamics, Coupled Orbit-Attitude Dynamics, Solar Power Satellite","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8941982/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-8941982/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"The scale of future space structures is expected to exceed the dimensional and mass limits of launcher fairings, requiring large modular systems to be assembled directly in orbit. During this process, the progressive addition of modules continuously alters the mass distribution, inertia tensor, and sensitivity to environmental disturbances, consequently modifying the orbit-attitude dynamics of the evolving structure. Accounting for these effects is therefore essential when planning assembly operations, particularly for large-area platforms such as solar power satellites.\nThis work presents a dynamics-aware framework for planning the spacecraft assembly sequence in which the order of module installation is selected by explicitly considering the coupled orbit–attitude response while the structure remains uncontrolled. Orbital motion is modelled using a perturbed two-body formulation including Earth’s oblateness, solar radiation pressure, and third-bodygravitational effects, and attitude evolution follows rigid-body dynamics driven by gravity-gradient and radiation torques. The assembly process is formulated incrementally, adding a fixed number of modules at each step through a greedy optimisation that minimises a cost function based on the maximum attitude deviation while satisfying feasibility constraints.\nThe framework is demonstrated on the ESA SOLARIS and SPS-ALPHA concepts and assessed in both geostationary and geosynchronous Laplace-plane orbits.Comparisons with non-optimised sequences and reduced-perturbation models show that assembly order and environmental disturbances strongly influence the dynamical behaviour. The proposed approach identifies sequences that reduce the resulting dynamical response while remaining computationally tractable forstructures composed of thousands of modules.","manuscriptTitle":"Optimisation of Assembly Sequences for Modular Solar Power Satellites Under Coupled Orbit-Attitude Dynamics","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2026-03-11 14:07:57","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-8941982/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0},{"type":"decision","content":"Revision requested","date":"2026-02-24T15:54:21+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"editorAssigned","content":"","date":"2026-02-24T11:49:34+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"checksComplete","content":"","date":"2026-02-24T11:48:49+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""},{"type":"submitted","content":"Nonlinear Dynamics","date":"2026-02-23T00:22:45+00:00","index":"","fulltext":""}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"nonlinear-dynamics","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"externalIdentity":"nody","sideBox":"Learn more about [Nonlinear Dynamics](https://www.springer.com/journal/11071)","snPcode":"11071","submissionUrl":"https://submission.nature.com/new-submission/11071/3","title":"Nonlinear Dynamics","twitterHandle":"","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":true,"editorialSystem":"stoa","reportingPortfolio":"Springer Hybrid","inReviewEnabled":true,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":false}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"d8fbc701-3524-4f49-8345-8fd0cf00bb5c","owner":[],"postedDate":"March 11th, 2026","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"in-revision","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2026-05-04T06:54:40+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2026-03-11 14:07:57","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-8941982","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-8941982","identity":"rs-8941982","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"XKTyCvWXoU3ODBz1xrDgd","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}