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Concept
Spacecraft attitude control
Summary
Spacecraft attitude control is the process of controlling the orientation of a spacecraft (vehicle or satellite) with respect to an inertial frame of reference or another entity such as the celestial sphere, certain fields, and nearby objects, etc.
Controlling vehicle attitude requires sensors to measure vehicle orientation, actuators to apply the torques needed to orient the vehicle to a desired attitude, and algorithms to command the actuators based on (1) sensor measurements of the current attitude and (2) specification of a desired attitude. The integrated field that studies the combination of sensors, actuators and algorithms is called guidance, navigation and control (GNC).
A spacecraft's attitude must typically be stabilized and controlled for a variety of reasons. It is often needed so that the spacecraft high-gain antenna may be accurately pointed to Earth for communications, so that onboard experiments may accomplish precise pointing for accurate collection and subsequent interpretation of data, so that the heating and cooling effects of sunlight and shadow may be used intelligently for thermal control, and also for guidance: short propulsive maneuvers must be executed in the right direction.
Attiude control of spacecraft is maintained using one of two principal approaches:
Spin stabilization Spin stabilization is accomplished by setting the spacecraft spinning, using the gyroscopic action of the rotating spacecraft mass as the stabilizing mechanism. Propulsion system thrusters are fired only occasionally to make desired changes in spin rate, or in the spin-stabilized attitude. If desired, the spinning may be stopped through the use of thrusters or by yo-yo de-spin. The Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11 probes in the outer Solar System are examples of spin-stabilized spacecraft.
is an alternative method of spacecraft attitude control in which the spacecraft is held fixed in the desired orientation without any rotation.
One method is to use small thrusters to continually nudge the spacecraft back and forth within a deadband of allowed attitude error.
Official source
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