1. A method of manufacturing a bulkhead adapter plate, the method comprising the steps of:
a) providing a flat sheet of metal, the flat sheet of metal including first and second flange ends and an adapter frame located between the flange ends, the adapter frame including a first side portion, a second side portion, and a center portion located between the first and second side portions, the flat sheet of metal defining apertures that extend into both the center portion and at least one of the first and second side portions of the adapter frame;
b) bending the first side portion of the adapter frame perpendicular to the center portion;
c) bending the second side portion of the adapter frame perpendicular to the center portion;
d) wherein the apertures form adapter mounting openings when the first and second side portions are bent, the adapter mounting openings being constructed to position adapters in an angled orientation relative to the center portion of the adapter frame.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of bending the first and second side portions includes bending each side portion at a fold line, the fold line intersecting one or more of the apertures.
3. The method of claim 1, further including forming holes in each of the side portions, the holes being sized for receiving adapter mounting tabs.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein the adapter frame of the flat sheet of metal includes a number of tabs interconnected to the center portion, the method further including bending each of the tabs perpendicular to the center portion.
5. The method of claim 4, wherein the number of tabs includes first and second rows of tabs, the step of bending each of the tabs including bending the first row of tabs in a first direction perpendicular to the center portion and bending the second row of tabs in a second opposite direction perpendicular to the center portion, the bent tabs forming a single row of tabs depending from the center portion.
6. The method of claim 5, wherein twelve individual adapter mounting openings are formed by only the four bending steps.
7. The method of claim 1, wherein six individual adapter mounting openings are formed by only the two bending steps.
8. The method of claim 1, wherein the steps of bending the portions of the adapter frame including bending the portions at bend lines that extend along a major length of the adapter frame.
9. A bulkhead adapter assembly, comprising:
a) an adapter frame including a first side portion, a second side portion, and a center portion located between the first and second side portions, the first and second side portions being perpendicular to the center portion, the adapter frame defining an array of integral angled openings each defined by the center portion at least one of the first and second side portions; and
b) adapters mounted within the integral angled openings, the adapters being oriented at an angle relative to a plane defined by the center portion of the adapter frame;
c) wherein each adapter includes a mounting tab that engages a hole formed in one of the first and second side portions to secure the adapter in the angled orientation.
10. The bulkhead adapter assembly of claim 9, further including mounting flanges extending from each end of the center portion of the adapter frame.
11. The bulkhead adapter assembly of claim 9, wherein the integral angled openings each include at least first and second opening portions, the first opening portion being defined by the center portion of the adapter frame, the second opening portion being defined by one of the first and second side portions of the adapter frame.
12. The bulkhead adapter assembly of claim 11, wherein the integral angled openings each include a third opening portion defined by the other of the first and second side portions of the adapter frame.
13. The bulkhead adapter assembly of claim 9, wherein the integral angled openings are defined by first apertures formed in the adapter frame and second apertures formed in the adapter frame, the first apertures being formed in both the center portion and the first side portion of the adapter frame, the second apertures being formed in both the center portion and the second side portion of the adapter frame.
14. The bulkhead adapter assembly of claim 13, further including a row of tabs depending from the center portion of the adapter frame, each of the first apertures further being formed in one of the tabs.
15. The bulkhead adapter assembly of claim 9, further including a row of tabs depending from the center portion of the adapter frame.
16. The bulkhead adapter assembly of claim 15, wherein the first and second side portions of the adapter frame, and the row of tabs, define holes, and wherein the holes receive mounting tabs of the adapters for securing the adapters in the angled orientation.
17. The bulkhead adapter assembly of claim 9, wherein the adapters can be mounted within the integral angled openings from a front side of the adapter frame and from a rear side of the adapter frame.
18. The bulkhead adapter assembly of claim 17, wherein each of the first and second side portions of the adapter frame is integrally attached to the center portion at a bend line, each of the first and second side portions including notched cutouts formed in edges of the side portion opposite the bend line, the notched cutouts generally corresponding to the integral angled openings such that the adapters can be mounted within the integral angled openings from the rear side of the adapter frame.
19. A method of removing an adapter from an angled opening of a bulkhead adapter plate, the method comprising the steps of:
a) providing a tool having a tool body and first and second arms extending outward from the tool body;
b) inserting the arms of the tool between each of a first side of a mounted adapter and a portion of the bulkhead adapter plate, and a second side of the mounted adapter and another portion of the bulkhead adapter plate, wherein the arms of the tool contact adapter tabs located on each of the first and second sides of the mounted adapter; and
c) flexing the adapter tabs toward one another by further inserting the tool arms such that the adapter tabs disengage from holes formed in the portions of the adapter frame.
The claims below are in addition to those above.
All refrences to claim(s) which appear below refer to the numbering after this setence.
What is claimed is:
1. An attitude control system comprising:
a controller for controlling an attitude of a vehicle carrying an actuator system, the actuator system adapted to pulse in metered bursts in order to generate a control torque to control the attitude of the vehicle in response to a control pulse; and
a noise screen device coupled to the controller, the noise screen device adapted to generate a noise screen signal in response to the control pulse, the control pulse being generated when an attitude input error signal exceeds a predetermined deadband level, the noise screen signal comprising a decaying offset signal that when combined with the attitude error input signal results in a net attitude error input signal away from the predetermined deadband level to reduce further control pulse generation.
2. The system of claim 1 wherein the noise screen signal is a step offset signal that exponentially decays to zero.
3. The system of claim 1 wherein the noise screen signal is adapted to offset the attitude error input signal away from a deadband threshold attitude level and impede further pulsing in a time period immediately following an initial pulse initiation.
4. The system of claim 1 wherein a magnitude of an offset of the noise screen signal is in the range of 15% to 30% of a deadband value.
5. The system of claim 1 wherein an exponential decay time constant of the noise screen signal is in the range of 10 to 100 seconds.
6. The system of claim 1 wherein the actuator system is a thruster, the thruster including a valve enabling the formation of pulses of expelled gas from a source of compressed gas.
7. The system of claim 1 wherein the actuator system is a thruster and a modulator logic device is adapted to control a driver for driving the thruster to expel a succession of pulses of gas, wherein an individual one of the pulses of gas provides a force impulse which urges the vehicle toward a desired attitude different from a first attitude with the vehicle drifting back towards the first attitude during an interval of time between successive ones of the gas pulses.
8. The system of claim 1 wherein the vehicle is a spacecraft.
9. The system of claim 1 wherein the controller further includes a modulator logic device adapted to generate the control pulse.
10. A method of reducing an undesirable response to signal noise for a mass expulsion spacecraft control system comprising the steps of:
generating a noise screen signal in response to an initial attitude control pulse, the noise screen signal comprising a the noise screen signal comprising a decaying offset signal that when combined with the attitude error input signal results in a net attitude error input signal away from the predetermined deadband level to reduce further control pulse generation;
combining the noise screen signal with an attitude error input signal; and
generating a subsequent attitude control pulse based on the combined noise screen signal and attitude error input signal, wherein each subsequent control pulse is adapted to generate additional superposed decaying functions.
11. The method of claim 10 wherein the step of generating a noise screen signal in response to an initial attitude control pulse further comprises the step of forming the initial attitude control pulse in a modulator logic when an attitude error input signal exceeds a preset deadband level.
12. The method of claim 10 wherein the step of generating the noise screen signal further comprises the step of generating an initial noise screen signal that at the outset is a step offset that exponentially decays to zero.
13. The method of claim 10 wherein the step of generating a noise screen signal further comprises the step of offsetting the attitude error input signal away from a deadband threshold and impeding the generation of subsequent control pulses in a time period immediately following an initial pulse generation.