General OneFile - Document - Swarming satbots

Pointing a satellite in the right direction is fundamental to its mission. To stay "alive" it has to point toward the Sun; to talk to Earth and to other satellites, it has to point toward them. The technology for pointing the satellites, called the attitude control system, is traditionally a quite sophisticated combination of sensors, actuators (which move the satellite), and control logic (usually a computer that converts the sensors' data into commands for the actuators).