Autonomous Reorientation of a Manuever-Limited Spacecraft Under Simple Pointing Constraints
Charles A. Vannelli
Engineer's Thesis, Caltech, May 1997
This report presents techniques for using discrete finite
rotations to reorient a spacecraft from a given initial attitude to a
final attitude which satisfies a specified aiming objective. The
objective may be a fully specified final orientation or it may require
that the spacecraft direct an instrument along a certain
direction. Constraints are also imposed on the allowable intermediate
orientations that the spacecraft may assume during the course of the
maneuver, representing the operational requirements of onboard
instrumentation. The algorithms presented consider solutions that
will achieve the desired objective with only one or two slew
maneuvers, although they may be easily extended to consider more
complicated solutions requiring additional maneuvers.
Thesis
(PDF, 100 pages, 433K)
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