METHOD OF CONTROLLING THE ATTITUDE OF A SATELLITE AND AN ATTITUDE CONTROLLED SATELLITE

摘要

The present invention concerns a method of controlling the attitude of a satellite in orbit around a celestial body the attitude of the satellite being controlled by means of a momentum storage device and by means of controllable surfaces of the satellite capable of creating desaturation torques in the storage device by using solar pressure said controllable surfaces being arranged on solar panels mobile in rotation around an axis Y. The attitude of the satellite is also controlled by means of at least one electric thruster also implemented to control the orbit of the satellite the orientation of the at least one electric thruster being controlled in such a way as to activate said at least one electric thruster with a thrust direction deliberately not aligned with a centre of mass of the satellite in order to create desaturation torques in the storage device along axis Y the controllable surfaces being controlled to create desaturation torques of said storage device in a plane orthogonal to the Y axis. The present invention also concerns an attitude controlled satellite (10).