METHOD OF CONTROLLING ORIENTATION OF SPACECRAFT WITH FIXED SOLAR PANELS WHEN CONDUCTING EXPERIMENTS Russian patent published in 2015 - IPC B64G1/44 

FIELD: physics; control.

SUBSTANCE: invention relates to space engineering. A method of controlling orientation of a spacecraft with fixed solar panels when conducting experiments includes gravitational orientation of the spacecraft by the longitudinal axis along the local vertical and spinning around the longitudinal axis, which corresponds to the minimum moment of inertia. The angle between the direction of the Sun and the orbital plane is further determined. The orbital altitude is determined. The spacecraft is spun around the longitudinal axis with angular velocity directed towards the centre of the Earth or from the centre of the Sun. The choice of the spinning direction depends on the value of the angle between the direction of the Sun and the orbital plane.

EFFECT: maximum overall illumination of solar panels in one pass.

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