Abstract
This paper presents a simulation study on the viability of a dual axis gimbaled electric thruster for the relative orbital position control. Relative attitude of the spacecraft is controlled using reaction wheels (RWs). This study considers proportional derivative (PD) algorithm for orbital position control and nonlinear dynamic inversion for relative attitude control. The relative attitude dynamics is derived assuming that the target spacecraft is cooperative and is inactive, therefore, its relative attitude changes only due to its orbital motion around the central body. The dual-gimbal dynamics is approximated for control design due to coupling between gimbal rates. Numerical simulation results are presented to show the efficacy of the control algorithm as well the viability of the dual-axis gimbaled thruster for relative orbital motion control.
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