Attitude motion of a space object during its contactless ion beam transportation

Abstract

The development of systems for transporting space objects by an active spacecraft is an urgent task of modern astronautics. One of the promising areas in this field is contactless ion beam transport systems. The goals of this work are to study a space object attitude motion dynamics during its contactless transportation and the influence of this motion on the magnitude of the force transmitted by the ion beam. A mathematical model of a mechanical system consisting of the space object and the active spacecraft was developed using the Lagrange formalism. A simplified equation of the object's angular motion in Kepler's orbit was obtained. The influence of the object's center of mass position and the ratio of ion beam and gravity gradient torques on the phase portrait view in the case of cylindrical object in a circular orbit was studied. The most favorable areas on phase portrait from the point of view of the magnitude of the force transferred by the ion beam to the object were found. It is shown that in the case of an elliptical orbit chaos exists. Entering a phase trajectory in a chaotic layer can lead to a noticeable decrease in the ion beam force.