Simulation of microsatellite attitude using Kalman filtering in orbit results

This paper describes the various steps of the design and the implementation of the new reduced model of the extended Kalman filter (EKF) for small Euler angles on the Algerian microsatellite (Alsat-1). A specific implementation of the EKF is proposed to extract attitude and body rate in a circular low earth orbit (LEO) with a boom deployed for passive pitch and roll stabilisation and active Y-momentum wheel plus Z-reaction wheel and magnetorquer control. Numerical results show the effectiveness of the implementation. The simulation results have been validated using Monte–Carlo method. In-orbit test results are presented to evaluate the performance of the new reduced model of the EKF for small Euler angles during accurate Nadir-pointing control.