Fuel-efficient Attitude Maneuver with Multiple Thruster Firings

Abstract

This paper considers a spacecraft attitude maneuver that is performed by two or three firings of four impulsive thrusters. The minimum number of thruster firings is two when a rest-to-rest attitude maneuver of a spacecraft is performed by impulsive thrusters. However, when the maneuver is performed using three thruster firings, the total fuel consumption can be reduced. Therefore, we derive a method to obtain the maneuvering solutions for two or three thruster firings. First, we decompose the eigenaxis rotation into two successive rotations, and derive the approximate solutions for three thruster firings. Then, we derive the accurate solutions that satisfy the attitude dynamics by using a numerical iteration method. The efficiency of using three thruster firings, which are found to reduce the total fuel consumption, is verified by numerical simulations.