Fig. 1 V-bar, R-bar and Fly-by Approach Existing orbital transfer vehicles such as US Space Shuttles, Progress and Japanese H-IIA Transfer Vehicle (HTV) use a straight path approach to the International Space Station (ISS). The straight path approach has many advantages and is suitable for stable targets such as ISS and three-axis attitude-controlled satellites. However, for satellite capture m...

The attitude dynamics of a satellite with a large magnetic residual dipole is analysed and the effect of perturbations of the orbital parameters on stability is discussed. The analysis is the basis for the design of an attitude control strategy that minimizes the required control torque while satisfying an absolute pointing error constraint whenever direct compensation of magnetic torque is not...

Tripulse is a novel orientation/attitude estimation system that is designed to accurately estimate the orientation of a satellite borne phased array relative to one or more earth stations. This system has an accuracy potential that is signi cantly better than conventional Earth-Moon-Sun attitude sensors. Tripulse has conceptual similarities to amplitude comparison monopulse systems used in trac...

Global Navigation Satellite System carrier phase ambiguity resolution is the key to high precision positioning and attitude determination. In this contribution we consider the GNSS compass model. We derive the integer least-squares estimators and discuss the various steps involved in the ambiguity resolution process. This includes the method that has successfully been used in (Park and Teunisse...

New approach for modelling a physical hysteresis damping the flexible spacecraft structure oscillations, is developed. New results on communication satellite attitude guidance and digital robust control with precise pointing the large-scale flexible antennas, are presented.

We study under the linear approximation the stability of planar motions { a one parameter family of partial solutions of the equations describing the satellite attitude motion in a circular orbit.

The new generation Chinese high-resolution three-line stereo-mapping satellite Ziyuan 3 (ZY-3) is equipped with three sensors (nadir, backward, and forward views). Its objective is to manufacture the 1 : 50000 topographic map and revise and update the 1 : 25000 topographic map. For the push-broom satellite, the interpolation accuracy of orbit and attitude determines directly the satellite's ste...

New approach for modelling a physical hysteresis damping the flexible spacecraft structure oscillations, is developed. New results on communication satellite attitude guidance and digital robust control with precise pointing the large-scale flexible antennas, are presented.

We consider a point pattern matching problem occuring in astronautics: Given are pictures from a camera of unknown orientation, showing a section of the starry sky. We want to determine the orientation of the camera by matching the constellations in the pictures with a star catalogue. This problem occurs for satellite attitude determination with star eld sensors. We present a new solution, whic...

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 (usu...