Threedimensional multitethered satellite formati

Authors: D Yarotsky V Sidorenko D Pritykin

Publish Date: 2016/04/04

Volume: 125, Issue: 3, Pages: 309-332

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Abstract

This note presents a novel approach to maintain threedimensional multitethered satellite formation in space For a formation consisting of a main body connected by tethers with several deputy satellites the socalled “hubandspoke” configuration we demonstrate that under proper choice of the system’s parameters the deputy satellites can move along Lissajous curves in the plane normal to the local vertical with all tethers stretched the total force due to the tension forces acting on the main satellite is balanced in a way allowing it to be in relative equilibrium strictly below or strictly above the system’s center of mass We analyze relations between the system’s essential parameters and obtain conditions under which the proposed motion does take place We also study analytically the motion stability for different configurations and whether the deputy satellites can collide or the tethers can entangle Our theoretical findings are corroborated and validated by numerical experimentsThe authors first conceived the idea of the motion described in this paper during the dynamical analysis of the rotating multitethered satellite system Alary et al 2015 and the authors sincerely thank their collaborators Didier Alary Kirill Andreev Pavel Boyko Elena Ivanova and Cyrille Tourneur for the warm and stimulating atmosphere of that study The work of one of the authors DY on the present paper was supported by Russian Science Foundation Project 145000150Series 2 for x and series 1 for y Series 1 for y has nontrivial solutions iff N and q are not coprime If a nontrivial solution exists the time moment tau is found from series 2 for x Thus in this series collisions occur iff N and q are not coprime

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