DRAG AND STABILITY OF A LOW PERIGEE SATELLITE

摘要

Knowledge of how a rarefied gas interacts with a spacecraft surface is important in determining the drag and stability of flexible spacecraft. This paper reviews stability of flexible spacecraft. This paper reviews stability parameters for several boomed spacecraft configurations and examines how those stability parameters change with changing gas-surface interaction parameters. It is found that lack of knowledge of the gas-surface interaction makes it difficult to predict stability for all but the most robust spacecraft configurations. By making reasonable assumptions on the gas-surface interaction limits, though, the region of stability uncertainty can decrease dramatically and allow for more flexibility in the design.