Magnetic momentum management for a geostationary satellite platform

The attitude control system of three-axis stabilised geostationary platforms is usually based on a set of reaction wheels, the operation of which requires periodic desaturation manoeuvres in order to dump the angular momentum accumulated because of external secular disturbance torques. The need for such manoeuvres can be minimised by careful design of the satellite platform. In this paper, the control issues associated with the adoption of a magnetic actuator for (partial) momentum dumping on a geostationary platform are discussed, with specific reference to the robustness issues arising due to the highly uncertain space environment at geostationary earth orbit altitude.