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Nonlinearity-induced spacecraft tumbling

Conference ·
OSTI ID:481971
 [1]
  1. Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park, PA (United States)

An existing tumbling criterion for the dumbbell satellite in planar librations is reexamined and modified to reflect a recently identified tumbling mode associated with the horizontal attitude orientation. It is shown that for any initial attitude there exists a critical angular rate below which the motion is oscillatory and harmonic and beyond which a continuous tumbling will ensue. If the angular rate is at the critical value the spacecraft drifts towards the horizontal attitude from which a spontaneous periodic tumbling occurs.

OSTI ID:
481971
Report Number(s):
CONF-960503--
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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