Abstract: With the development of space activities in various countries, the number of on orbit failed satellites keeps increasing. To restore the fail satellites as soon as possible, it is necessary to analyze the motion evolution of failed satellites and plan rescue and maintenance tasks both ground based and space based reasonably. However, satellites often carry various types of flexible attachments, and the elastic vibrations of attachments are coupled with the satellite’s attitude and orbital motion. Satellite’s mechanical energy is continuously dissipated since the attachments’ vibration, leading to unique motion evolution characteristics of these satellites from rigid ones. The attitude vibration coupling dynamic model of failed satellites carrying flexible attachments is established to analyze the long term motion evolution convincingly. And the relationship between the energy dissipation and the motion evolution trends is also analyzed. The results show that the initial angular velocity of the satellite, the installation state of flexible attachments, and the structural and material characteristics have a significant impact on the energy dissipation rate, while the initial vibration state of flexible attachments has a small impact on the energy dissipation rate.

Key words: failed satellite, flexible appendages, spin stability, energy dissipation