Attitude maneuver of a satellite using movable masses

Abstract

This paper investigates the attitude maneuver problem of a spacecraft containing internal movable masses with zero angular momentum. The spacecraft dynamics in one dimension is first studied using the proposed moving mass control system with predefined mass motion. Next, a small-angle attitude maneuver method based on the sliding mode control technique is designed to accomplish the reorientation when the required maneuver angle is within the control capability of single-direction movable mass motion. Furthermore, a novel mass-shifting procedure is proposed for achieving full-domain attitude reorientation. The procedure includes a rest-to-rest maneuver method together with the trajectory optimization. Which, the rest-to-rest maneuver takes advantage of the attitude difference caused by sequential mass motion and the trajectory optimization is carried out based on time sub-optimal motion planning methods. The procedure is next combined with the small-angle maneuver method to achieve a high precision reorientation. Finally, numerical simulation results show that high precision full-domain attitude reorientation can be realized using the proposed control system with three internal movable masses.