ATTITUDE MANEUVERS OF A FLEXIBLE SPACE STATION BY MEANS OF DEPLOYABLETETHERS

This paper presents a possible approach to the study of attitude maneu vers of a deformable space station equipped with deployable tethers. S ince the equilibrium attitude depends on the tether lengths, it is dem onstrated that stable maneuvers can be carried out by deploying or ret racting the tethers. The equations of motion of the space station are derived via the application of the virtual work principle to each elem ent of the space station, including tethers. A finite element model is used to represent both the tethers and the deformable elements of the space station. The latter can be easily inherited from any standard f inite element code while a special model is developed for the tethers in order to specifically include the effects of their variation. Numer ical simulations are carried out on an abstract model of the space sta tion in order to demonstrate the feasibility of stable roll attitude m aneuvers and to define the range of achievable stable attitudes.