Method of determining and controlling the inertial attitude...

Details Method of determining and controlling the inertial attitude... Method of determining and controlling the inertial attitude...

2007-06-15

2010-06-15

Dinh, Tien (Department: 3644)

Data processing: vehicles, navigation, and relative location

Vehicle control, guidance, operation, or indication

Aeronautical vehicle

C244S171000, C244S164000

Reexamination Certificate

active

07739003

ABSTRACT:
A method of and apparatus for determining and controlling the inertial attitude of a spinning artificial satellite without using a suite of inertial gyroscopes. The method and apparatus operate by tracking three astronomical objects near the Earth's ecliptic pole and the satellite's and/or star tracker's spin axis and processing the track information. The method and apparatus include steps and means for selecting preferably three astronomical objects using a histogram method and determining a square of a first radius (R12) of a track of a first astronomical object; determining a square of a second radius (R22) of a track of a second astronomical object; determining a square of a third radius (R32) of a track of a third astronomical object; determining the inertial attitude of the spin axis using the squares of the first, second, and third radii (R12, R22, and R32) to calculate pitch, yaw, and roll rate; determining a change in the pitch and yaw of the artificial satellite; and controlling on-board generated current flow to various orthogonally-disposed current-carrying loops to act against the Earth's magnetic field and to apply gyroscopic precession to the spinning satellite to correct and maintain its optimum inertial attitude.

REFERENCES:
patent: 3305671 (1967-02-01), Manoni, Jr.
patent: 6362464 (2002-03-01), Liu et al.
patent: 6577929 (2003-06-01), Johnson et al.
patent: 7216036 (2007-05-01), Brady et al.
patent: 7410130 (2008-08-01), Wang et al.
E.I. Ergin et al., Magnetic Attitude Control of a Spinning Satellite, 846 J. Spacecraft vol. 2, No. 6.

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