Cooperative three-satellite methodology for space target detumbling

Excessive rotation speeds of malfunctioning satellites in space complicate target capture and on-orbit servicing. Satellite formation flying, an advanced technology, offers a solution for detumbling tumbling targets. This paper introduces a novel detumbling methodology involving three cooperative satellites and proposes a successive detumbling strategy. Two service satellites are employed to dampen the nutation angle, while a third satellite is utilized to reduce the self-spin angular velocity. By analyzing the effects of torque applied in different directions, the constraints for applying detumbling torques are derived. Specific torque control laws are designed based on integral sliding mode surface functions for despinning, and pulse-type torque control is used for nutation damping. Numerical simulation results demonstrate that the proposed methodology effectively reduces the angular velocity of the tumbling target and exhibits robustness.