Attitude maneuver of liquid-filled spacecraft with a flexible appendage by momentum wheel

Attitude maneuver of liquid-filled spacecraft with an appendage as a cantilever beam by momentum wheel is studied. The dynamic equations are derived by conservation of angular momentum and force equilibrium principle. A feedback control strategy of the momentum wheel is applied for the attitude maneuver. The residual nutation of the spacecraft in maneuver process changes with some chosen parameters, such as steady state time, locations of the liquid container and the appendage, and appendage parameters. The results indicate that locations in the second and fourth quadrants of the body-fixed coordinate system and the second quadrant of the wall of the main body are better choices for placing the liquid containers and the appendage than other locations if they can be placed randomly. Higher density and thicker cross section are better for lowering the residual nutation if they can be changed. Light appendage can be modeled as a rigid body, which results in a larger residual nutation than a flexible model though. The residual nutation decreases with increasing absolute value of the initial sloshing angular height.