The development of spacecraft has drawn considerable attentions in the field of dynamics since the 1950’s. The spacecraft can be regarded as a particle or as a body, depending on whether one focuses on the spacecraft’s orbital motion or on its rotational motion about the center of mass. Spacecraft attitude dynamics deals with the rotational motion of spacecraft. In the discussion of attitude dynamics, the rotation of spacecraft is usually assumed not to alter the orbit, while the orbit sometimes influences the rotational motion. Almost all spacecraft have some attitude requirements, either explicit pointing requirements for antennas or cameras, requirements for solar panel orientation, or simply a requirement for a given spin-axis direction. All the requirements are implemented by the design of attitude controls. The strategies chosen in the control process may limit the useful lifetime of the spacecraft, since an all-thruster control system depletes its propellant supply.  Attitude dynamics forms a theoretical basis of the design and control of spacecraft. The present monograph is concerned with spacecraft attitude motion, although essential elements of orbital dynamics will be introduced and the effects of orbital motion will be included in a few cases.

   With the development of nonlinear dynamics, chaos in spacecraft attitude dynamics has stirred renewed interests since the 1990's. In fact, for astronautical investigations, the predictability of spacecraft rotations is critical, and thus chaotic motions must be avoided. On the other hand, there are scientific experiments that require the whole celestial sphere to be scanned, and in those cases the chaotic rotation may be desirable. Therefore chaos theory offers a new method and viewpoint for designing spacecraft. In addition, spacecraft attitude dynamics also provides new mathematical models for engineering application of chaos analysis. Although there are some excellent monographs and textbooks on spacecraft attitude dynamics, there are few treatises on chaotic attitude motion. The present monograph focuses on chaos in spacecraft attitude dynamics.

   The monograph begins with the necessary fundamentals. Chapter 1 provides a primer on spacecraft dynamics, and Chapter 2 presents a survey of chaos theory. Different chaotic attitude motions are treated in Chapters 3 and 4. Chapter 3 considers only the planar motion of spacecraft, while Chapter 4 covers the spatial motion. The monograph ends with Chapter 5, dealing with controlling chaotic attitude motion.

   The main goal of the monograph is to provide readers with the knowledge of theory and application of chaos and its control in spacecraft attitude dynamics, including the basic concepts, main approaches and the latest research progress. The material is appropriate for university teachers, scientists, engineers, and graduate students in the fields of mechanics, applied mathematics, and aerospace science.

   Except for some background presented in Chapters 1 and 2, as well as Sections 4.1 and 5.1, all other materials contained in the monograph are adopted from research papers of the authors and their co-workers. The research work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Project Nos. 19782003 and 10082003), the National Outstanding Young Scientists Foundation of China (Project No. 10725209), Shanghai Municipal Development Foundation of Science and Technology (Project Nos. 98JC14032 and 98SHB1417), Shanghai Municipal Education Commission Scientific Research Project (No. 2000A12), and Shanghai Leading Academic Discipline Project (No. Y0103). The first author thanks his former PhD students Professor Peng Jianhua, Professor Chen Liqun, Dr. Cheng Gong, and his postdoctoral fellow Professor Yu Hongjie for their collaborations on related research. The second author thanks Professor Liu Yanzhu, who, serving as his PhD supervisor, introduced him to this field. He also thanks his hosts, Professor Jean W. Zu (University of Toronto) and Professor C. W. Lim (City University of Hong Kong) for their assistance during his visit to their institutes so that he could complete his portions of the book.

   The authors thank Tsinghua University Press and Springer for the publication of this book, and Mr. Chen Zhaohui, the editor of Academic Publishing Centre, for his enthusiastic and patient cooperation. They also thank Shanghai Jiao Tong University for partial financial support of the publication.  

Liu Yanzhu (Shanghai Jiao Tong University)

Chen Liqun (Shanghai University)