Pk. Kadaba et K. Naishadham, FEASIBILITY OF NONCONTACTING ELECTROMAGNETIC DESPINNING OF A SATELLITE BY INDUCING EDDY CURRENTS IN ITS SKIN .2. DESIGN IMPLEMENTATION, IEEE transactions on magnetics, 31(4), 1995, pp. 2478-2485
The servicing of disabled satellites requires that the units be despun
before any repair can be done. In a companion paper, we have presente
d the analytical considerations pertinent to the design of an electrom
agnetically coupled despin system based on inducing eddy currents in t
he satellite skin by an external dc magnetic held. Two configurations,
namely, a current loop and a magnet, either permanent bar or U-shaped
electromagnet, have been examined as the source of eddy current power
input to the satellite. In this paper, we conduct parametric studies
on the despin system designs, proposed in the earlier investigation, i
n order to comparatively evaluate these designs from the standpoint of
reducing the despin time to a reasonable value. Computed results on t
he despin time and the eddy current power input indicate that times of
the order of orbital daylight or less can be achieved with only moder
ate expenditure of power.