Attitude Control of a Spinning Spacecraft Using Only Magnetic Torquers

Abstract

An spin control of a spin-stabilized spacecraft using only magnetic torquers is proposed in this paper. It can simultaneously deal with both of the spin axis control and the angular momentum control. The proposed control law is obtained by applying the cross product law to the angular momentum error. The behavior and the stability under the control are studied analytically. As the result, the proposed control converges the axis direction and the rate of the spin to the desired ones under some assumptions. The analytical study is evaluated through numerical simulations, which show the good agreement between them.