Cooperative control structures and methods for satellite spin axis control

摘要

Structures and methods are provided to effect satellite maneuvers in the presence of disturbance torques with enhanced fuel efficiency. A thruster control loop is combined with a wheel control loop in which the wheels respond to an estimate of the disturbance torques (e.g., an angular acceleration estimate, a thruster torque command or a filtered thruster torque command) to create a counteracting gyroscopic torque. Simulations of the invention's methods have shown they have the authority of all-thruster control systems and fuel efficiency that rivals that that of all-wheel control systems.