METHOD FOR UNIAXIAL ORIENTATION OF AN ELONGATED SPACE VEHICLE Russian patent published in 2022 - IPC B64G1/28 B64G1/34 

FIELD: cosmonautics.

SUBSTANCE: invention relates to control of the orientation of an elongated space vehicle (SV) with solar batteries (SB). The method includes determining the height of the orbit of the SV and the duration ΔT of the shadow part of the turn of the orbit, the angle β between the direction to the sun and the plane of the orbit of the SV, rotating the SV until alignment of the longitudinal axis thereof with the plane of the orbit, and twisting the SV around the longitudinal axis thereof. By the time of twisting, the longitudinal axis of the SV is aligned with the direction perpendicular to the direction to the sun, when the angle α between the normal to the working surface of the SB perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the SV and the projection of the direction to the sun on the plane of the orbit reaches the value α₀ set from the condition α=β at the time of the SV reaching the first of the number of turns for maintaining the uniaxial orientation of the SV light part of the orbit. The SV is twisted with an angular velocity ω₁>3ω (ω is the orbital angular velocity).

EFFECT: increase in the energy output of the SB with the maintained uniaxial inertial orientation of the SV.

1 cl, 2 dwg