What is it about?
Most satellites are equipped with a minimum of three attitude actuatros for fully controlling attitude and angular rate. More than three actuators make the system redundant, heavier, more expensive, but resilinet to failure. The paper provides a control law that allows aiming a body-fixed direction (e.g. a nozzle for orbit maneuvers or an antenna or the boresight of a sensor) towards a prescribed direction using only two reaction wheels, that is, when the spacecraft is underactuated.
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Why is it important?
Satellite operational life can be extended if a minimal activity can be carried on also after (possibly multiple) failures of on board hardware. Arbitrary pointing precision can be achieved, if the residula angular momentum is kept to zero.
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This page is a summary of: Single-Axis Pointing of an Underactuated Spacecraft Equipped with Two Reaction Wheels, Journal of Guidance Control and Dynamics, June 2017, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA),
DOI: 10.2514/1.g002182.
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