Small Satellite Attitude Control for Tracking Resident Space Objects

This paper addresses the attitude determination and control problem for the University at Buffalo’s GLADOS mission. The main objective of the mission is to collect multi-band photometric data of resident space objects to improve space situational awareness. The team plans to use two optical payloads, a wide-field camera and a spectrometer, to achieve this goal. The attitude control system uses feedback from the wide-field camera in order to track targets and allow the collection of spectral data. The development of this novel approach which is suitable for low-cost small satellites is presented. A numerical simulation of a modeled mission including environmental disturbances, reaction wheel limitations, and sensor errors and delays is outlined. Results of this simulation are then presented. The ability of this approach to effectively track targets within the narrow field-of-view of the spectrometer is demonstrated.