LAUSR

Abstract In this work, equilibrium attitude configurations, attitude stability and periodic attitude families are investigated for rigid spacecrafts moving on stationary orbits around asteroid 216 Kleopatra. The polyhedral approach is adopted to formulate the equations of rotational motion. In this dynamical model, six equilibrium attitude configurations with non-zero Euler angles are identified for a spacecraft moving on each stationary orbit. Then the linearized equations of attitude motion at equilibrium attitudes are derived. Based on the linear system, the necessary conditions of stability of equilibrium attitudes are provided, and stability domains on the spacecraft’s characteristic plane are obtained. It is found that the stability domains are distributed in the first and third quadrants of the characteristic plane and the stability domain in the third quadrant is separated into two regions by an unstable belt. Subsequently, we present the linear solution around a stable equilibrium attitude point, indicating that there are three types of elemental periodic attitudes. By means of numerical approaches, three fundamental families of periodic solutions are determined in the full attitude model.