Prospects of using a permanent magnetic end effector to despin and detumble an uncooperative target

Space debris, such as defunct satellites and upper stages of rockets, becomes an uncooperative target after losing its attitude control and communication ability. In addition, tumbling motion can occur due to environmental perturbations and residual angular momentum prior to the object’s end-of-mission. To minimize the collision risk during docking and capturing of the tumbling target, a non-contact method based on the eddy current effect is put forward to transmit the control torque to the tumbling target. The main idea is to induce a controllable torque on the conducting surface of the tumbling target using a rotational magnetic field generated by a Halbach rotor. The radial and axial Halbach rotors are used to damp the spinning and nutation motions of the target, respectively. The normal and tangential force are evaluated concerning the relative pose between the chaser and the target. A simplified dynamic model of the nutation damping and despinning processes is developed and the influences of the asymmetrical principal moments of inertia and transverse angular velocity are discussed. The numerical simulation results show that the designed Halbach rotor stabilized the target attitude within an acceptable time. The electromagnetic nutation damping and despinning method provides new solutions for the development of on-orbit capture technology.