General background and approach to multibody dynamics for space applications

Multibody dynamics for space applications is dictated by space environment such as space-varying gravity forces, orbital and attitude perturbations, control forces if any. Several methods and formulations devoted to the modeling of flexible bodies undergoing large overall motions were developed in recent years. Most of these different formulations were aimed to face one of the main problems concerning the analysis of spacecraft dynamics namely the reduction of computer simulation time. By virtue of this, the use of symbolic manipulation, recursive formulation and parallel processing algorithms were proposed. All these approaches fall into two categories, the one based on Newton/Euler methods and the one based on Lagrangian methods; both of them have their advantages and disadvantages although in general, Newtonian approaches lend to a better understanding of the physics of problems and in particular of the magnitude of the reactions and of the corresponding structural stresses. Another important issue which must be addressed carefully in multibody space dynamics is relevant to a correct choice of kinematics variables. In fact, when dealing with flexible multibody system the resulting equations include two different types of state variables, the ones associated with large (rigid) displacements and the ones associated with elastic deformations. These two sets of variables have generally two different time scales if we think of the attitude motion of a satellite whose period of oscillation, due to the gravity gradient effects, is of the same order of magnitude as the orbital period, which is much bigger than the one associated with the structural vibration of the satellite itself. Therefore, the numerical integration of the equations of the system represents a challenging problem. This was the abstract and some of the arguments that Professor Paolo Santini intended to present for the Breakwell Lecture; unfortunately a deadly disease attacked him and shortly took him to death, leaving his work unfinished. In agreement with Astrodynamics Committee it was decided to prepare a paper based on some research activities that Paolo Santini performed during almost 50 years in the aerospace field. His researches spanned many arguments, encompassing flexible space structures, to optimization, stability analysis, thermal analysis, smart structure, etc. just to mention the ones more related to the space field (Paolo Santini was also one the pioneers of the studies of composite wing structures, aeroelasticity and unsteady aerodynamics for aeronautical applications). Following notes have been prepared by Paolo Gasbarri who was one of Paolo Santini collaborators for almost 15 years, they will attempt to offer a sketch of Professor Santini's activity by focusing on three main topics: the stability of flexible spacecrafts, the dynamics of multibody systems and the use of the smart structure technology for the space applications. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.