Chaotic attitude motion and its control of spacecraft in elliptic orbit and geomagnetic field

The chaotic attitude motion and its control of a magnetic spacecraft with internal damping in an elliptic orbit and geomagnetic field is discussed. Based on the dynamical equations, the Melnikov method is used to predict the existence of chaos in the sense of Smale horseshoe. The chaotic behavior is numerically identified by means of Poincare map and Lyapunov exponents. The chaotic attitude motion of spacecraft can be controlled by a method based on the stability criterion of linear system. The method can stabilize the chaos onto any desired periodic orbit by a small time-continuous perturbation feedback. The linearization of the system around the stabilized orbit is not required. The desired periodic solution can be automatically detected in the control process. The numerical simulation demonstrates the stabilization of chaotic attitude motion to period-1 or period-2 motion and shows the effectiveness and flexibility of the proposed control method. (C) 2003 International Astronautical Federation. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.