Spacecraft Dynamic Characteristics While Deploying Flexible Beams

IntroductionVibrations increase when flexible spacecraft beamsare deployed. The deploying and the vibrations ofthe beams influence the attitude motion of thespacecraft. Li and Wang1,2 ] has studied thedynamics of a rigid body spacecraft with twosymmetric deploying flexible beams. Theapproximate formulas were given for theamplitudes of the beams and the attitude angularvelocities of the spacecraft for certain conditions.Song and Ma3] found the dynamic equations forflexible appendages of spa…

Spacecraft Dynamic Characteristics While Deploying Flexible Beams

The attitude dynamic equations of a spacecraft while deploying two flexible beams and the beam equations were developed from momentum theory. The dynamic equations were solved numerically using the Runge-Kutta method to calculate the vibration amplitudes of the flexible beams and the attitude angular velocity. The results show that the vibration amplitudes increase as the beam length increases or as the initial attitude angular velocity increases. The results also show that the vibration amplitudes decrease as the deployment velocity increases.