A book on spacecraft momentum control systems would not be complete without a discussion on spacecraft attitude control and momentum management specific to momentum control actuators. Though there are multiple publications that provide a wide swath of ideas for the theory behind spacecraft attitude control strategies, it behooves the reader to understand the differences between what is practically possible with momentum control actuators versus actuators that provide external torques. These differences will be addressed in the discussions that follow at the intersection of control theory and control engineering as it relates to spacecraft momentum control systems.

    The majority of heritage control methods for practical spacecraft attitude control are either for small angle attitude control, feedback linearization, or methods to track prescribed reference attitude, momentum, or angular rate trajectories with respect to small displacements. These reference trajectories paired with their associated open-loop control usually hail from an open-loop optimization problem as part of the guidance system. Since uncertainties and disturbances are present, there are always errors not accounted for by the open-loop control. These errors are typically assumed to be small, and closed-loop attitude control law is computed to address these errors about the linearized system with respect to the reference trajectory. This is possible by linearizing the dynamics about a prescribed attitude and angular rate trajectory as a function of time, providing a linear time-varying set of closed-loop dynamics. Therefore, this chapter will only focus on linear control in terms of linearized error attitude, angular rate, and momentum. See Appendices B and D for a deeper discussion on nonlinear attitude control and momentum management, controllability, stability, safety, and robustness.


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    Title :

    Spacecraft Attitude Control


    Additional title:

    Space Technology Library


    Contributors:

    Published in:

    Publication date :

    2025-05-28


    Size :

    29 pages





    Type of media :

    Article/Chapter (Book)


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English




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