A New Approach to Measure Spacecraft Moments of Inertia Based on the Analysis of a Self-Oscillating System

The conventional method for determining moments of inertia is based on the evaluation of the period of free oscillations of a torsion pendulum with one degree of freedom. The complexity of the method lies in the necessity to maintain the high quality factor of the oscillation process by decreasing the influence of dissipative forces that can lead to significant errors in measurements. The authors of this article propose a new approach to improve the conventional pendulum method by developing the self-oscillation process to eliminate damping. The article describes complex research of the proposed method for measuring the moment of inertia based on the self-oscillating system. MatLab software was used for the synthesis of a mathematical model of the test stand with the choice of optimal oscillation modes. The article presents the experimental results of testing the method using AMIK, an automated stand for controlling the coordinates of the center of mass and moments of inertia. The experimental results have verified the mathematical modeling results.

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