Importance

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Abstract

The invention provides a method for controlling the precession of a spinning spacecraft (20) which allows the spacecraft body to respond to an input torque without the nutation normally attendant when an input torque is applied about one transverse axis to accelerate a spinning spacecraft about that one axis. Dynamic decoupling eliminates nutation through the impression of additional derived feedback torques (44,46) to the input torque control of a spinning spacecraft to oppose or cancel the intrinsic cross-coupling terms (34,36) of the spinning spacecraft's gyrodynamics that give rise to the nutation. Thus, a single spacecraft design can provide the benefits of a spinning bus such as a simplified thruster control system for orbit control, improved temperature environment for many payload elements, spin-averaging of body-fixed disturbances and gyro drift errors, and propellant management as well as the major benefit of a body-stabilized or non-rotation spacecraft design which is freedom from nutation and hence improved performance.

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First Claim