Attitude evolution of a dual-liquid-filled spacecraft with internal energy dissipation

In this paper, the attitude evolution of a dual-liquid-filled spacecraft with internal energy dissipation is investigated. The dynamic equations of the spacecraft system are established to study various trajectories including major axis spin, period-n limit cycle, and chaotic motion. A criterion is obtained by Melnikov’s method to predict the occurrence of chaotic motion of the system. The effects of system parameters, especially liquid parameters, on the chaotic region, are discussed in detail. The comparison of analytical and numerical results shows that our criterion can accurately separate the chaotic from nonchaotic region of the system in parameter space. Therefore, this paper contributes to avoid the potentially periodic and chaotic motions of spacecraft.