Accurate spacecraft attitude estimation with the ESA starmapper

The ESA starmapper is an optical-electronic instrument with an array of photo-sensitive slits, to "be strapped down to spinning spacecraft. Recorded times of passage of known stars over these slits, together with mathematical models for spacecraft dynamics and starmapper instrument, provide the basis for recursive estimation of the spacecraft...

Equivalent flexibility modelling: A novel approach towards recursive simulation of flexible spacecraft-manipulator dynamics

For the simulation of rigid spacecraft manipulator dynamics there exists efficient recursive software. Extension of this software for the simulation of flexible spacecraft-manipulator dynamics would have important advantages. In this paper the method of Equivalent Flexibility Modelling (EFM) is outlined. Each flexible body is re-modelled as a...

Dynamics modelling, simulation, and control of a spacecraft/manipulator system

Four well-known formalisms for mathematical modelling of the dynamics of a spacecraft/manipulator system are derived from the unifying d'Alembert principle. The Newton-Euler formalism is discussed in more detail, as it allows efficient numerical simulation. An algorithm is defined for the control of the manipulator end-effector motion in...