The attitude control system of a rendezvous and docking technology demonstrator mission target

During this Phase-B study, a satellite was designed which will serve as a target/client for a rendezvous and docking technology demonstration mission. During the mission, several approaches, rendezvous, berthing and docking maneuvers by the servicing satellite are planned. To demonstrate the full capability of the approach technology, the target satellite shall simulate a cooperating as well as a non cooperating target. Therefore uncommon attitude control system (ACS) modes were required, ranging from different cooperative 3-axis controlled inertial pointing modes to a 4°/s spinning mode and a 4°/s tumbling mode with a 10° nutation angle. The paper will give a brief overview over the client satellite and the driving design requirements and challenges. Then it will describe the attitude control system in detail and present simulation results for the different ACS modes.