DYNAMICS AND STABILITY OF A FREELY PRECESSING SPACECRAFT CONTAINING ANUTATION DAMPER

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.