Effectiveness of large booms as nutation dampers for spin stabilized spacecraft

The issue of using long slender booms as pendulous nutation damping devices on spinning aircraft is discussed. Motivation comes from experience with the Galileo Spacecraft, whose magnetometer boom also serves as a passive nutation damper for the spacecraft. Performance analysis of a spacecraft system equipped with such systems are relatively insensitive to changes in the damping constant of the device. However, the size and arrangement of such a damper raises important questions concerning spacecraft stability in general.