Chaos in the Reorientation Process of a Dual-Spin Spacecraft with Time-Dependent moments of Inertia

We study the spin-up dynamics of a dual-spin spacecraft containing one axisymmetric rotor which is parallel to one of the principal axes of the spacecraft. It will be supposed that one of the moments of inertia of the platform is a periodic function of time and that the center of mass of the spacecraft is not modified. Under these assumptions, it is shown that in the absence of external torques and spinning rotors the system possesses chaotic behavior in the sense that it exhibits Smale’s horseshoes. We prove this statement by means of the Melnikov method. The presence of chaotic behavior results in a random spin-up operation. This randomness is visualized by means of maps of the initial conditions with final nutation angle close to zero. This phenomenon is well described by a suitable parameter that measures the amount of randomness of the process. Finally, we relate this parameter with the Melnikov function in the absence of the spinning rotor and with the presence of subharmonic resonances.