Chaos in flexible CubeSat attitude motion due to aerodynamic instability

The paper deals with the attitude dynamics of CubeSats with flexible stabilizing panels in free molecular flow taking into account the aerodynamic damping. In addition to the operating position, characterized by zero angle of attack, aerodynamically stabilized satellites may have intermediate equilibrium positions. The presence of unstable equilibrium positions and small perturbations such as the oscillations of the flexible panels is the cause chaos in the attitude motion. An analysis of the chaotic motion is carried out using Poincare sections and Lyapunov exponents. Numerical simulations show that the chaos intensity is sensitive to the geometric and environmental parameters of the system. •The attitude motion of the CubeSats with aerodynamic instability is considered.•The chaotic behavior of the satellite with flexible panels is proven.•The chaos intensity is sensitive to the geometric and environmental parameters of the system.