Rigid-flexible coupling effect on attitude dynamics of electric solar wind sail

This paper investigates the modelling of rigid-flexible coupling effect on the attitude dynamics and spin control of an electric solar wind sail (E-sail) by developing a rigid-flexible coupling dynamic model. The model considers the attitude dynamics of the central spacecraft, the elastic deformation of the tethers and the rigid-flexible coupling between the spacecraft and the tether. The attitude and translation dynamics of the central spacecraft is described by the natural coordinate formulation, while the tether deformation is described by the high-fidelity nodal position finite element method. The latter enables a natural coupling between the motion of the flexible tethers and the rigid-body dynamics of the central spacecraft at the anchor points where the tethers connected to the spacecraft by Lagrange multipliers. Based on the model, the influence of the rigid-flexible coupling, E sail orientation and geometrical configuration on the dynamic characteristics of the E-sail is investigated by a parametric analysis. It is found that the deformation motion of flexible tethers will cause the offset of centres of mass and thrust of E-sail, which generates disturbance torques on the central spacecraft. Through the nonlinear rigid-flexible coupling, the disturbance causes the tension fluctuations and the undesired fluctuations of the E-sail's attitude and spin rate. The parametric analysis indicates that the E-sail is more stable if the spin plane passes the centre of mass of the central spacecraft. Finally, the controllability of E-sail spin rate is investigated by applying simple feedback torque controls at the central spacecraft or at the central spacecraft and the remote units simultaneously. The analysis demonstrates the spin rate cannot be controlled by the central spacecraft along due to the rigid-flexible coupling and must be controlled at the remote units with finite control input. (C) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.