APPLICATION OF PASSIVE GG-AERO STABILIZATION FOR NEAR-EARTH SMALL SATELLITES

When the orbital altitude of a small satellite is near-Earth, passive stabilization can be considered. The purpose of this paper is to combine the passive gravity gradient and aerodynamic stabilization methods together so that all the three axes stabilizations can be obtained. In this regard, the set of nonlinear equations of motion will be solved numerically with specified initial condition. The history of the attitude stabilization will be investigated and discussed in detail. The paper demonstrates the feasibility of passive gg-aero stabilization and provides guidelines for the satellite design to obtain the best attitude performance without sacrificing satellite lifetime.