SINGLE-AXIS POINTING OF A MAGNETICALLY ACTUATED SPACECRAFT: A NON-NOMINAL EULER AXIS APPROACH

The use of magnetic torquers on satellites flying inclined Low Earth Orbits (LEO) arises challenging problems when dealing with control strategies: since the available torque is perpendicular to the local magnetic field, the Attitude Control System (ACS) is inherently underactuated if no other attitude effector is available. In this paper a rigorous proof of global asymptotic stability is derived for a control law that leads the satellite to a desired pure spin condition around a principal axis of inertia. A heuristic contribution is then added, inspired by quaternion feedback control and a previous geometric result obtained by the authors, which allows for pointing the spin axis along the normal to the orbital plane.