Earth based spacecraft orbit and attitude control using a look-ahead thruster selection logic and magnetic torquers

摘要

A spacecraft ground loop controller (GLC), located on the Earth interfaces with a satellite ground station receiving spacecraft telemetry from the downlink baseband equipment and automatically sending spacecraft commands through the command uplink baseband equipment to control the attitude of an orbiting spacecraft and achieve partial orbit control using commanded thruster firings and magnetic torquer polarity and magnitude. A cooperative approach of using all available thrusters, of both the primary and redundant strings, provides greater fuel savings. <IMAGE>