METHOD OF CONTROLLING MOVEMENT OF SPACECRAFT AROUND CENTRE OF MASS TO MAINTAIN ORIENTATION DURING PERTURBING ACCELERATION Russian patent published in 2011 - IPC B64G1/24 B64G1/26 

FIELD: physics.

SUBSTANCE: method involves determining displacement angle and angular velocity of spacecraft around centre of mass. Control and test forces are applied to the spacecraft. The sign of perturbing acceleration is determined from the sign of increment of angular velocity for a test force in the channel for controlling movement of the centre of mass of the spacecraft. The signal of the said angular velocity is corrected based on values and duration of control and perturbing acceleration forces taking into account their signs. The value of the angle of deviation, determined from the corrected angular velocity, and the velocity itself are compared to operation thresholds. If the given angular velocity is less than the operating threshold, compensating forces are applied to the spacecraft around the centre of mass. During stabilisation, the value of the current perturbing acceleration and the ratio of the value of perturbing acceleration to the control acceleration around the centre of mass are refined. This ensures independency of control parametres from initial estimates of the perturbing and control accelerations.

EFFECT: low amplitude of oscillation of angular velocity and duration of the transient process, and in steady state - ensuring small deviation of angular velocity from the normal value and angle error which does not exceed the threshold value.

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