Wheel Attitude Cancellation Thruster Torque of LEO Microsatellite during Orbital Maintenance

Abstract

A cold gas propulsion system is used for orbital maintenance on board microsatellite. Cold gas thrusters are the simplest way of achieving thrust. A microsatellite could be a part of the constellation and to maintain a daily coverage, it will be equipped with a propulsion system for an orbit control. A constellation of several microsatellites could be launched and put at the allocate position in the orbit. To do this, the satellites need few months to be in their final position. A propulsion system is used, among other things, to maintain the satellite at its nominal position. The wheels (reaction/momentum) will be used to dump the thruster disturbances caused by misalignment. This study describes the wheel attitude damping thruster disturbances of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) microsatellite for orbit maintenance with the following points: 1) Attitude dynamics, 2) External disturbances, 3) Magnetic wheel control, 4) Simulation results will be presented to evaluate the performance and design objectives. © 2006 Asian Network for Scientific Information.