Abstract
It is well known that libration of a tethered satellite system (TSS) in elliptic orbits behaves chaotic motion. By past studies, it is also known a delayed feedback controller (DFC) has high robustness and is effective in controlling chaotic librational motion of TSS. To investigate chaotic librational motion of TSS, we have developed a ground-based experimental setup that can emulate pitch motion of TSS in elliptic orbits. This setup consists of three parts; rotational stage, sliding device and lifting device. By driving these three parts synchronously, rotation central force field affecting a TSS can be emulated on this setup. We expect that the behavior of TSS can be stabilized by transferring pitch motion toward near periodic orbit. In advance of such stabilization experiments, performance of this setup, that is supposed to be capable of emulating required orbit, must be confirmed. Because appearances of periodic pitch motions in this setup approximately correspond to that in space, we can conclude that this setup has high capability of emulating librational motion of TSS in elliptic orbits.
