Passive Damping of Wobbling Satellites: General Stability Theory and Example

Abstract

The problem of damping the nutational motion of a spinning artificial satellite is considered. It is shown that an internal passive device can damp the nutations of a body when the polar moment of inertia is greater than the transverse, but will lead to instability in the opposite case. One particular form of damper is examined in more detail, and it is found that it will indeed stabilize the axis if its parameters obey a certain condition. If they do not, a stable motion will result, but the axis of rotation will not be the axis of symmetry of the satellite.