Abstract The paper deals with the general equations of a flexible spacecraft in a gravitational field. The motion of a generic point of the body is described as the superposition of a rigid motion plus a combination of structural modes. The general equations for the motion of a particle of the body are written; as a consequence, the equations of momentum, and of moment of momentum are derived. All the terms appearing in such equations are very general; in particular, gravitational torques include the effect of flexural deformations and of higher harmonics of the gravitational field. Similarly, the equations for the generic vibration mode amplitude include all the above effects. Stability of the motion around a given configuration is studied, for both nonspinning, and for spinning satellites. Numerical examples complete the work.


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    Title :

    Stability of flexible spacecrafts


    Contributors:

    Published in:

    Acta Astronautica ; 3 , 9-10 ; 685-713


    Publication date :

    1976-03-25


    Size :

    29 pages




    Type of media :

    Article (Journal)


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English