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Sensors and Actuators

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Fundamentals of Spacecraft Attitude Determination and Control

Part of the book series: Space Technology Library ((SPTL,volume 33))

Abstract

This chapter will discuss several kinds of sensors and actuators used to determine and control spacecraft attitude [26, 44, 54, 66]. The history of attitude sensor development has emphasized increased resolution and accuracy as well as decreased size, weight, and power (often abbreviated as SWaP). Actuator technologies have also been scaled down to be appropriate for microsatellites and cubesats. We begin with a brief introduction to redundancy considerations, and then consider some specific sensors and actuators.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    This can be derived, for example, from Eqs. (A-12) and (A-22) in [66].

  2. 2.

    An example calculation is set as an exercise in Chap. 5.

  3. 3.

    Proper motion is accounted for separately.

  4. 4.

    This is v∕c ≈ 100  μrad, so (v∕c)2 ≈ 0.002 arcsec, which indicates that a fully relativistic analysis is not required.

  5. 5.

    The U.S. Coast Guard Navigation Center maintains a website that contains GPS almanacs, and as of this writing this website is given by http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/.

  6. 6.

    Equation (4.27) assumes that the light travels through a vacuum. The fiber’s index of refraction complicates the analysis, but does not change the order-of-magnitude estimates.

  7. 7.

    Note that ν is measured in Hz, and ω in rad/s.

  8. 8.

    Note that we cannot make the same assumption for the stochastic variables.

  9. 9.

    The authors thank John P. Downing for suggesting this configuration.

  10. 10.

    The momentum polyhedron of the dodecahedron reaction wheel configuration takes the form of a rhombic tricontahedron, the shape of a 30-sided die.

  11. 11.

    This relation, which is crucial for real-time implementation of the minimax algorithm, was discovered by Frank X. Liu.

  12. 12.

    This is true for all the configurations considered here, but may not hold for some pathological configurations [41].

  13. 13.

    The four-wheel and six-wheel pyramids with these parameters, and also the dodecahedron, have \( \mathscr {W}_n \mathscr {W}_n^T=(n/3)I_3\). Then Eq. (4.75) shows that the pseudoinverse distribution method gives \(\|{\mathbf {H}}^w_W\|{ }^2=(3/n)\|{\mathbf {H}}^w_B\|{ }^2\) for these configurations.

  14. 14.

    Variable-speed CMGs, combining the properties of CMGs and reaction wheels, have been proposed but are not widely employed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Attitude Control Systems Engineering Branch, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MA, USA

    F. Landis Markley

  2. Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University at Buffalo State University of New York, Amherst, NY, USA

    John L. Crassidis

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Markley, F.L., Crassidis, J.L. (2014). Sensors and Actuators. In: Fundamentals of Spacecraft Attitude Determination and Control. Space Technology Library, vol 33. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-0802-8_4

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