Gimbal Actuator Modeling for a Spin-Stabilized Spacecraft Equipped with a 1DoF Gimbaled-Thruster and two Reaction Wheels

TL;DR

This paper models a gimbal actuator for a spin-stabilized spacecraft with a 1DoF gimbaled thruster and reaction wheels, demonstrating through simulations that an industrial DC motor can effectively control attitude during impulsive maneuvers.

Contribution

It provides a mathematical model of the gimbal actuator integrated with DC motor dynamics and validates its applicability for spacecraft attitude control during impulsive maneuvers.

Findings

Industrial DC motor can be used for spacecraft attitude control.

The proposed control method effectively stabilizes the spacecraft during impulsive maneuvers.

Simulation results confirm the model's applicability in real scenarios.

Abstract

Attitude control of spacecraft during an impulsive orbital maneuver is a vital task. Many spacecraft and launchers use the gimbaled thrust vector control (TVC) in their attitude control system during an orbital maneuver. Mathematical modeling of the gimbal actuator is an important task because we should show the applicability of the gimbaled-TVC in a spacecraft. In this paper, a spin-stabilized spacecraft equipped with one degree of freedom (DoF) gimbaled-thruster and two reaction wheels (RWs) is considered. The control goals are disturbance rejection and thrust vector (spin-axis) stabilization based on one DoF gimbal actuator and two RWs. The gimbal is assumed to be equipped with a gearbox and a DC electric motor. This actuator must supply the gimbal torque to rotate the spacecraft nozzle. The mathematical model of the mentioned spacecraft is extended with respect to the DC motor equations. In order to investigate the applicability of the proposed method, an industrial DC electric motor is considered for the gimbal actuator. The simulation results prove that an industrial DC electric motor is able to be used for attitude control of the mentioned spacecraft. The simulation results indicate the applicability of the proposed control method in an impulsive orbital maneuver.