Chaotic pitch motion and its stabilization of solar sails subjected to environmental torques in low Earth orbits

The paper establishes pitch dynamics of a square multi-body sailcraft with a sliding mass as the attitude control actuator in low Earth orbits experiencing typical torques such as gravitational, atmospheric and solar pressure torques. The dominant and perturbed torques are classified in terms of orbit altitudes. The Melnikov method predicts chaotic pitch motion near separatrices, validated through numerical tools including observing time history of the pitch angle, phase plane, Poincare section and power spectral density. An adaptive time-delayed feedback controller with anti-saturation achieves stabilization of chaotic pitch motion onto periodic orbits through constrained sliding mass positioning ([−1, 1] m) for torque generation propellantlessly. The control strategy incorporates gain adjustment and switched schemes to improve steady-state performance, and meanwhile decreasing both the required control torque and actual required control input null. Numerical simulations validate the developed closed-loop system's capability for propellantless stabilization of chaotic pitch motion across three typical altitudes.