A major challenge of the Mariner Jupiter-Saturn '77 spacecraft was devising a suboptimal attitude controller that could meet the demanding mission requirements. The challenge was met by implementing a discrete stochastic controller for a specially designed onboard computer. The paper describes the design and operation of the controller, based on a simple model of spacecraft dynamics. Two types of cruising modes are considered: inertial cruise, where spacecraft attitude is determined from gyro position outputs, and celestial cruise, where position information is obtained from sun sensors and a star tracker. These two cruise modes under conditions of disturbances were simulated on computer, and the results showed that the controller maintained the spacecraft attitude with low rates. An appendix gives details on the single-step predictor.


    Access

    Access via TIB

    Check availability in my library


    Export, share and cite



    Title :

    Attitude control of Mariner Jupiter-Saturn spacecraft


    Contributors:

    Conference:

    Symposium on Automatic Control in Space ; 1976 ; Rottach-Egern, Germany


    Publication date :

    1976-01-01


    Type of media :

    Miscellaneous


    Type of material :

    No indication


    Language :

    English





    Mariner Jupiter/Saturn 1977 navigation strategy

    MCKINLEY, E. / VAN ALLEN, R. | AIAA | 1975



    The Mariner Jupiter/Saturn 1977 mission

    Schurmeier, H. M. | NTRS | 1974


    Mariner Jupiter/Saturn 1977 Navigation Strategy

    E. L. McKinley / R. E. Van Allen | AIAA | 1976