Chaos in Planar Attitude Motion of Spacecraft

Abstract

The chaos of spacecraft in planar attitude motion is discussed in this chapter. A rigid-body spacecraft in elliptic orbit considering the gravitational and damping torque is discussed, and the Melnikov’s theory is applied to predict the transverse heteroclinic point. The numerical simulations and Poincare maps are performed to confirm the existence of chaos. The same methods are used to analyze the motion of a tethered satellite in circular orbit considering the gravitational torque and the elastic deformation of the tether, as well as a magnetic rigid spacecraft in elliptic orbits under the action of gravitational and magnetic field of the Earth. The numerical results not only confirm the existence of chaotic motion, but also serve as examples of geometrical structure of chaos, routes to chaos, and numerical identification of chaos.