Modeling issues related to retrieval of flexible tethered satellite systems

1992 by E. Kim and S. R. Vadali. Published by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc. The dynamics of the tethered satellite system which includes longitudinal elongation, in-plane and out-ofplane lateral vibrations, in-plane and out-of-plane librations and geometric nonlinearity is studied. The nonlinear hybrid set of equations of motion are derived via the Newton-Euler method and discretized by both the Galerkin's method and by assuming the tether to be a series of point masses (i.e. beads) connected by massless springs. Simulations show that the effect of geometric nonlinearity is significant especially on the longitudinal vibrational responses and that the equations discretized by the Galerkin's method exibit a sudden instability during retrieval when geometric nonlinearity is included. These responses, up to the point of divergence, correlate well with the responses of the bead model, but for the bead model, the sudden instability is not present. In addition, a nonrecursive order-N method for simulating the bead model is presented.

Modeling issues related to retrieval of flexible tethered satellite systems Conference Paper