Fundamentals of Spacecraft Attitude Determination and Control [Bookshelf]

There are many excellent texts that cover the orbital dynamics, attitude dynamics, and control of spacecraft, but few discuss spacecraft attitude determination and control in detail. This book is devoted to the specific discipline of spacecraft attitude determination and control. Both authors are well known in the field; they have both published extensively on a range of spacecraft attitude-related topics as well as implementing attitude estimation and control schemes on real space-bound hardware. This real-world expertise is projected onto the pages of the text, increasing its value immensely. The design of an attitude determination and control system begins with understanding the fundamental kinematics and dynamics of the system under investigation. With this in mind, the book can roughly be divided into three parts: attitude kinematics and attitude dynamics of spacecraft (Chapters 2 and 3), attitude determination and estimation (Chapters 5 and 6), and attitude control (Chapter 7). The operation of sensor and actuators is also discussed (Chapter 4). Each chapter begins with a brief introduction of the topics covered. Throughout the chapters, the authors cite the archival literature, thereby creating a comprehensive list of references. The chapters end with a series of questions making the text suitable for classroom use.