ON THE INFLUENCE OF THE ELASTICITY OF COMPONENTS IN A SPINNING SATELLITE ON THE STABILITY OF ITS MOTION,

Abstract

When a rigid body in free space is spinning around one of its principal axes, besides the three translational modes with zero frequency and one rotational mode of zero frequency around the spin axis, one may consider two rotational modes of small amplitudes of oscillations around the two remaining axes, which will be called nutational modes. Their frequencies do not vanish and are only real if the spinning motion is stable.. If now the body is allowed to be slightly elastic, the frequencies of the nutational modes will be altered, but at the same time there will appear new frequencies corresponding to the so-called elastic modes. Natural stability of such systems and stability of spinning motion in magnetic and gravitational fields are important questions and must be considered when designing spin stabilized satellites. This investigation is conceived on a general basis and brings up only the broad features of a rather complex problem.

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 1966
Accession Number
AD0628247

Entities

People

  • F. Buckens

Organizations

  • UCLouvain

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Space

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Amplitude
  • Artificial Satellites
  • Elastic Properties
  • Frequency
  • Gravitational Fields
  • Oscillation

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Control Systems Engineering.

Technology Areas

  • Space
  • Space - Orbital Debris
  • Space - Spacecraft Maneuvers