Periodic solutions and stability analysis of electrodynamic tethers for 13 degree international geomagnetic reference field

Abstract

The geomagnetic field plays a crucial role in the operation of the electrodynamic tether system in the space. Using the 13 degree International Geomagnetic Reference Field to model the geomagnetic field, the libration dynamic equation of the system is established. The nonlinear libration dynamic equation of the system is a typical chaotic system. In the dynamic equation, there are four free parameters: the orbital inclination, the orbital eccentricity, the altitude of the perigee and the electrodynamic parameter. After adding dummy control terms into the dynamic system, the extended time delayed autosynchronization control method is employed to calculate the periodic solutions of the dynamic equation. The shapes and amplitudes of the periodic libration motions change with the free parameters regularity. Based on the Floquet theory, the stabilities of the periodic solutions are analyzed. The orbit time during which the initial periodic libration turns to the rotation motion is defined as the failure time. It is used to measure the instability of the periodic solution and validate the results from the Floquet theory. Simulations show that the results from the failure time are consistent with the results from the Floquet theory. For all parameters, the periodic solutions are all unstable. In addition, the relationships between the instabilities of the periodic solutions and the free parameters are obtained.