The attitude stability of a spacecraft with two flexible solar arrays in the gravitational field

The attitude stability of flexible spacecraft is discussed in this paper. The Euler’s equations of spacecraft and the equations of forced vibration of two flexible solar arrays are derived. The governing equation is discretized via the Galerkin method, and the stability of relative equilibrium of spacecraft in the orbit frame is determined based on the Kelvin–Tait–Chetayev theorem. The sufficient condition of stability in the analytical form for the n-term truncated modal is established based on the governing equation.