Reconstruction of the Rotational Motion of a Satellite by the Kalman Filter

The task of a spacecraft rotational motion reconstruction by the onboard measurements data of its angular velocity and the Earth's magnetic field (EMF) is considered in this article. These reconstructions are necessary for estimation of a microgravity environment onboard a spacecraft during experiments with gravity-sensitive processes. Such experiments can continue for several days, so this article presents a technique intended for building continuous approximations of a satellite motion over long time intervals. The above method uses only kinematic equations and is designed for reconstruction of a satellite motion in the oriented and non-oriented flight modes. The focus of the method on the satellite motion a posteriori approximations construction of over long time intervals distinguishes the technique, described in the paper, from a number of known methods for reconstructing of the rotational motion of a spacecraft by the EMF onboard measurements.