Abstract: In order to increase pointing accuracy of the large deployable antenna and adapt to on-orbit conditions such as jet dumping, the Craig-Bampton modal synthesis was used in antenna pointing dynamic modeling,  and a pointing control method based on beacon was proposed. By using Kalman filter, the flexible antenna vibration status was estimated. If the antennas do not vibrate obviously, the antenna pointing was adjusted by beacon sensors, and the stability was ensured by collocated attitude sensors. While the  antenna vibration exceeds the threshold,  only the collocated attitude sensors were induced to attenuate oscillation until vibration was attenuated. By using the in orbit thermal deformation testing data of the Thuraya satellite, the simulation results show that the antenna pointing accuracy without jet is superior to ±0.02°, and the vibration could be estimated correctly with the switch of tracking input after jet dumping. The results indicate that the antenna pointing error is adjusted with the guarantee of stability, and the influences of jet dumping and station-keeping are limited with the proposed vibration estimation method. 

Key words: Beacon sensor, Antenna pointing control, Attitude dynamics, Pointing accuracy , Large deployable antenna