Co. Chang et al., DYNAMICS AND STABILITY OF A FREELY PRECESSING SPACECRAFT CONTAINING ANUTATION DAMPER, Journal of guidance, control, and dynamics, 19(2), 1996, pp. 297-304
The stability of a torque-free inertially symmetric spinning spacecraf
t containing a partially filled viscous ring nutation damper and the p
erformance of this damper on the removal of the wobble motion of the s
pacecraft are investigated. The motion behavior about three different
relative equilibria are studied. The equations for stability condition
s and decay time constant for these three relative equilibria are obta
ined in explicit form. The effects of parameters of the spacecraft and
damper on the stability criteria and decay time constant are quite di
fferent for these three equilibria, Numerical solutions show that when
the motion about one of these three relative equilibria loses its sta
bility, it converges to either one of the other two, depending on whic
h stability criterion is satisfied.