Abstract
A satellite’s inertia properties can be changed after launch due to consumption of propellant, deployment of solar panels, collision with space debris, sloshing, etc. For reliable and efficient satellite control, it is necessary to predict accurate information regarding the satellite’s inertia properties. In this note, we suggest a new real time method to estimate the inertia properties. First of all, we filter the noise of the gyro data with the extended Kalman filter. Then we estimate the inertia properties using the recursive least squares algorithm. For an improved estimation result, we combine the angular acceleration method and the angular velocity method. We have verified the performance of the suggested method through the case of STSAT-3, a Korea Science Technology Satellite, which has already been developed.
