The Attitude&Orbit Dynamics Modeling And Simulation Of The Tethered Satellite System

The tethered Satellite System has an extensive application for the near-Earth and deepspace exploration. It has explored a wide road for human space construction. Tether systemdynamics model is the theoretical basis of research and the premise of tether systemapplication. The precision guide, accurate orbit and attitude control are all based on thecorrect tether system modeling.The tether’s quality is assumed to be ignored in the existing Tethered Satellite Systemdynamics model and it is assumed that the quality of maternal is much bigger than that of thechild satellite. These two model hypothesizes have made the system modeling process greatlysimplified. However, with the appearance of small satellite and point power tether, theassumption has lost its legitimacy.To solve the above issues, it is studied that the three-body system composed of thematernal satellite, the child satellite (similar weight order) and the earth connected by thetether whose quality can be ignored. The intrinsic model abandoned, the model proposedherein is closer to the development trend and can be more widely applied.First of all, the attitude dynamics and orbit dynamics of single satellite is analyzed andsimulated, which is the basic theory to the modeling and analysis of the tethered satellitesystem dynamics. Then, The Lagrange equation is used to model the orbit dynamicssimulation of the tethered satellite system. The intrinsic characteristics of tethered system areanalyzed like the strong non-linear character and the weight gradient domain character.Finally, the relative motion is modeled and the system stability and balance status arediscussed for the tethered satellite system. Finally, the tethered satellite system dynamics issimulated base-on C language.This paper covers the tether kinematics, stability theory and provide basic model forspace docking, collection, capture, measuring and other engineering application. All modelsare verified by simulation. The simulation results showed that models proposed here canreflect characteristics of system correctly and the tethered satellite system can operate stablein the orbit.