Spacecraft dynamics due to elastic ring antenna deployment

In this paper the dynamics of a spacecraft with a system of stabilization out-of-operation is studied. The deployment of the ring flexible antenna is performed after placing the spacecraft into orbit and damping the initially undesired rotations by a special jet-propelled system. Basically the antenna is a pre-stressed tape reeled on a special drum. Deploying from the drum, the tape takes the shape of an elastic ring of 30 m in diameter. The objective of the study is the mechanical and computational modelling of the spacecraft dynamics. The equations of motion are derived in Lagrangian form. Numerical simulations of operational mode of the system are performed. As it is shown in main result, which restrictions must be imposed on parameters of the process of deployment for maintenance of the shape of the deployed design.