AAS 95-356

Use of Passive Damping for a Tethered Artificial Gravity Spacecraft

S. I. Saeed and J. D. Powell, Stanford University, Stanford, CA

Abstract

This paper examines different passive damping configurations for a tethered artificial gravity spacecraft, including longitudinal and lateral damping of the tether modes and torsional damping of rigid body modes and the tether modes indirectly. It discusses the feasibility for implementing passive damping in this system for each different configuration, and shows that passive damping can achieve very high damping ratios, for example z = .95, depending on the configuration. It discussed the drawbacks of passive damping, such as an inability to correct for spacecraft floor tilt when the astronauts move around and makes recommendations concerning the utility of passive damping in future tethered artificial gravity spacecraft.