High-Speed Attitude Control System for Small Satellite with Micro-CMGs

Abstract

The problem of high-speed maneuver with CMGs (Control Moment Gyros) is considered. In general, CMGs are mostly mounted on large spacecraft, such as ISS (International Space Station) or MIR space station because it is large in size and requires a substantial amount of power. The objective of this paper is to introduce the Micro-CMG, which has been jointly-developed by LSS and TAMAGAWA SEIKI Co., Ltd. This CMG is used to achieve the mission that the small satellite named TSUBAME observes the emission of gamma-ray burst. Furthermore, a time-optimal control problem is solved numerically using the gradient method to obtain the time-optimal input to the pyramid array of four CMGs. The solution gives some indication of the feasibility of the mission of TSUBAME.