Abstract:
We consider certain modes of orbital orientation of a spacecraft-gyrostat in a low earth orbit. The gyrostatic momentum is produced by a system of reaction wheels or control moment gyros. Our consideration takes into account the gravitational and restoring aerodynamic torques acing on the spacecraft. We construct the control laws by gyrostatic momentum that allow without its growth to maintain a long and sufficiently accurate orbital orientation of the spacecraft near gravity stable and unstable rest position, taking place in the appropriate unperturbed problem (the spacecraft orbit is circular, gyrostatic momentum is zero, the gravitational torque only affects the spacecraft attitude motion).