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B. Barkow, A. Steindl, H. Troger:
"Targeting Control of Unfolding of Space Structures Connected by Springs";
in: "Proceedings of the Third European Conference on Structural Control", R. Flesch, H Irschik, M. Krommer (ed.); issued by: Technische Universität Wien; TU Wien, 2005, S1-135 - S1-138.

One of the most important operations during a tethered satellite system
mission, that is a system of satellites connected by strings, is
the deployment of a subsatellite from a space ship. We restrict to
the simple, but practically important case that the system is
moving on a circular Keplerian orbit around the Earth. The main problem during
deployment due to gravity gradient is that due to the Coriolis
acceleration the two satellites do not move
along the straight radial relative equilibrium position
in the orbital frame. Instead a strong deviation from the local
vertical direction occurs, which, after the deployment process is
finished, results in weakly damped large amplitude oscillations,
which in some cases are even transient chaotic.
This chaotic dynamics will be used to steer the satellite
with small control actions into the final radial relative equilibrium
position far away from the space ship. Both deployment time and energy input are computed and compared with other deployment strategies.

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