Dynamics of an autonomous spacecraft control system at initial transition to a tracking mode

Abstract

The problems of autonomous digital control of the information satellites and space robots during their initial transition to a tracking mode, namely in the initial orientation modes, are considered. Autonomous angular guidance and modularly limited vector digital control using a vector of the modified Rodrigues parameters are applying to bring the spacecraft’s orientation from completely arbitrary to the required one. The developed methods, algorithms and simulation results for a mini-satellite in a sun-synchronous orbit are presented.