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Attitude stability of a spacecraft with two flexible solar arrays on a stationary orbit around an asteroid subjected to gravity gradient torque

Astrophysics and Space Science volume 351, pages507–524(2014)Cite this article

Abstract

In the gravity field of an asteroid with the second order and degree harmonics C 20 and C 22, the attitude stability of a spacecraft with two flexible solar arrays on a stationary orbit subjected to the fourth-order gravity gradient torque is investigated in this paper. The sufficient conditions of attitude stability of the spacecraft are obtained, the effect of the direction of the flexible solar arrays and some special cases are discussed. Taking the asteroids 4769 Castalia, 25143 Itokawa and the imaginary asteroids as examples, the attitude stability domains, determined by the sufficient conditions, of the spacecrafts moving on stationary orbits around them are presented. It is found that the attitude stability domains of the spacecraft with two flexible solar arrays are evidently different when the solar arrays are installed in different directions; the effect of the harmonics C 20 and C 22 of the asteroids has the significant influence on the attitude stability domains of the spacecrafts with flexible appendages moving on stationary orbits; in the certain case, the effect of the harmonics C 20 and C 22 of the asteroids has no influence on the attitude stability domains of the rigid spacecrafts moving on stationary orbits, but in the other cases, the effect of the harmonics C 20 and C 22 of the asteroids has also the significant influence on the attitude stability domains of the rigid spacecrafts moving on stationary orbits; whether the harmonics C 20 and C 22 of the asteroids are considered or not, the effect of flexible appendages decreases the attitude stability domains.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant nos. 11125315, 11033009 and 11103086. The authors would like to thank anonymous reviewer for the valuable comments that help to substantially improve the manuscript.

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Affiliations

  1. Purple Mountain Observatory, Chinese Academy Sciences, Nanjing, 210008, China
    • Ming-Jiang Zhang
    •  & Chang-Yin Zhao
  2. Key Laboratory of Space Object and Debris Observation, PMO, Chinese Academy Sciences, Nanjing, 210008, China
    • Ming-Jiang Zhang
    •  & Chang-Yin Zhao
  3. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China
    • Ming-Jiang Zhang
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Zhang, M., Zhao, C. Attitude stability of a spacecraft with two flexible solar arrays on a stationary orbit around an asteroid subjected to gravity gradient torque. Astrophys Space Sci 351, 507–524 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10509-014-1863-5

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Keywords

  • Spacecraft
  • Asteroid
  • Attitude stability
  • Sufficient conditions of stability
  • Stability domain