Experimental Study on Delayed Feedback Control for Libration of Tethered Satellite System

Abstract

Experimental study on delayed feedback control for libration of tethered satellite system was conducted. To investigate the effect of gravity on the motion of the tethered satellite system, the elasticity of the tether and the aerodynamic drag force affecting the system were assumed to be negligible. It is necessary to assign practical values to the nondimensional force affecting the tethered subsatellite to emulate its in-plane motion in elliptic orbits. These variations in tether length occur once per seven orbits in the numerical simulations, but once per three orbits in the experiments. The results obtained reveal that DFC using tether length rate control can stabilize chaotic librational motion of a tethered satellite system in an elliptic orbit to a periodic motion. A tethered satellite system whose libration is stabilized to a periodic motion can serve as a sky hook, or space-born transportation system, to periodically pick up launched payloads or capture and release space debris.