ANALYTICAL SOLUTION OF ATTITUDE MOTION FOR SPACECRAFT WITH A SLEWING APPENDAGE

This paper investigates pitch motion and in orbital plane elastic vibr ation of a spacecraft with a flexible beam type appendage undergoing p rescribed stew maneuver. The governing equations are transformed into a standard quasi-linear form, and then solved by Butenin's variation o f parameters approach. Validity of the analytical solutions is assesse d over a range of system parameters and initial conditions by comparin g them with the results of numerical integration. The results show tha t they are very good approximations and provide extensive insight into the dynamical response of the system.