Magnetic Attitude Determination and Control for Low Earth Orbiting Small Satellites

Prof. WH Steyn Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering University of Stellenbosch PO Box 1 Matieland 7602 Abstract For satellites in low earth orbit an interaction with the local geomagnetic field is an important means of controlling the attitude or orientation of spacecraft. The local geomagnetic field vector is measured with a magnetometer and by comparing it to a model of the earths magnetic field, an estimation of the attitude angles and angular rates can be made. A control torque to change the attitude of a satellite can be generated by a magnetic moment that interacts with the local geomagnetic field. These magnetic moments are produced by body mounted coils or magnetic torqrods. Introduction Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. (SSTL) in the UK is building small, low cost satellites over the last 20 years. More than 20 satellites varying in sizes from 6.5 kg (SNAP-1 nano-satellite) to 320 kg (UoSAT-12 minisatellite) have been build, launched and operated successfully in low earth orbit (LEO = 600 to 1000 km altitude). The bulk of these satellites are micro-satellites of about 50 kg, used mainly for earth observation. In South Africa a project by post graduate students at the University of Stellenbosch culminated in the first orbiting satellite constructed on African soil. The 64 kg microsatellite SUNSAT-1 was launched into LEO from Vandenberg air force base in California USA on the 23rd of February 1999. Since SUNSAT-1 a local company SunSpace & Information Systems (Pty) Ltd. was formed specialising in small satellite development. A technology transfer and satellite contract was also signed and started with an overseas client. The SSTL and SunSpace small satellites use amongst others, also active magnetic methods to keep the earth observation cameras and communication antennas earth pointing. Cost, power, mass and volume are the main factors to consider when designing small satellites, thus, magnetic methods have inherently low penalties in all these areas and are ideally suited for LEO satellite applications. The geomagnetic field strength in LEO is varying in both direction and magnitude, depending on the satellites position over the earths surface. For example, for a satellite in a polar, circular orbit (ideal for earth observation), the magnetic field strength is maximum over the polar region and almost 50% less over the equatorial region. The direction of the field vector also rotates twice within the orbital plane per orbit period of about 100 minutes. Magnetometer A 3-axis flux-gate type magnetometer is normally used to measure the local geomagnetic field in spacecraft body coordinates. These sensors are extremely reliable (no failures in more than 25 orbiting units), low power with a high sensitivity and low noise. Table 1 summarises some of the important features of a typical small satellite magnetometer. For SUNSAT-1 the magnetic observatory at Hermanus manufactured a fluxgate magnetometer similar to the Microsat type in Table 1. Microsat Type +/- 60 +/- 10 130 x 90 x 36 295 +/- 10 < 250 Nanosat Type +/- 60 +/- 10 83 x 35 x 32 117 +5 < 150

Range (T) Sensitivity (nT) Size (mm) Mass (gram) Supply (Volt) Power (milli-W)

The magnetometers are calibrated in-orbit to correct the pre-launch gain and offset parameters. Misalignment of the orthogonal pickup coils and sensor mounting errors are also determined once in-orbit. The calibration model employed to correct all these errors, are:

B cal (t ) = ( I + S )B meas ( t ) + b = A( t) B model

where, I S b A = Identity matrix = Scaling and orthogonality matrix = Bias (offset) vector = Attitude rotation matrix

(1)

A recursive least squares (RLS) minimisation method is used to determine the components of the scaling matrix and the offset vector. Equation 1 is used to compare the magnetometer measurement vectors in body coordinates with IGRF (International Geomagnetic Reference Field) modelled vectors in orbit coordinates, assuming knowledge of the spacecraft attitude rotation matrix from

orbit to body coordinates. See Figure 1 for a typical calibration result.

B-field Magnitude Error
4

X/Y/Z coils according to the cross-product control law (Eq.4).

( or rpo)
15

Libration Damping/Z-spin Control oz

(roll)

10
2

0 Micro-Tesla Uncal Error -2 LMS Error RLS Error -4

0 -5

(pitch)

-6

-10
0 5000 10000 15000 20000 25000 30000 35000 40000 45000 50000

-8

-15 0 1 2 3 4 5 6

Mx My Mz Time (orbits)

Time (seconds)

Fig.1 Magnetometer calibration improvement Magnetorquer Torque can be produced to change the attitude of a satellite by generating a magnetic moment M. This moment can be produced by a current flowing in a coil. The coil can either have an air core or a ferrite core made from a special type of magnetic alloy with low remanence and good flux linearity. The magnetic moment is calculated from the current I, the number of turns n and the area enclosed A:

Fig.2 Magnetic torquer control on a micro-satellite Attitude/Rate Estimation The attitude angles and angular rates of a satellite can be determined by continuously comparing vector measurements from a magnetometer with IGRF modelled vectors. The relationship expressed in equation 1 between the calibrated and modelled measurements can be used to solve for the attitude matrix A. The following problems, however, still exist: IGRF model inaccuracies and measurement noise Single vector pair does not give a unique solution No angular rate information is directly available The solution to these problems will be to use a Kalman filter which contains a model of the satellites dynamics and kinematics [2]. The filter is then updated (state variables corrected) in an optimal way, using the error vector (innovation) between the magnetometer measurements and a predicted sensor measurement coming from the Kalman filter attitude estimate. See figure 3. Typical LEO magnetic estimation delivers RMS accuracies less than 1 degree in the attitude angles and less than 5 milli-degree per second in the angular rates.
Actuation Satellite Sensor +

M = k . nIA

(2)

For an air core magnetorquer the gain factor k = 1 and for a ferrite core torqrod k = 100 to 300. The latter value depends on the length over diameter shape factor of the rod and the permeability of the core material. Magnetic Control Coils in the X, Y and Z-axes will produce a dipole moment vector M. This vector then reacts with the local geomagnetic field B to produce a torque vector,

Nm = M B

(3)

From the above equation it is clear that the torque is limited by the direction of the B vector. For a polar orbit, the pitch and yaw attitude angles can be controlled over the equatorial region and pitch and roll attitude angles over the polar region. A simple but efficient magnetorquer control law mostly used [1], is based on a vector cross-product operator, where the vector e is calculated from the attitude and/or rate errors,

Correction

+
-

Kalman filter

Estimated sensor

eB M= B

(4)

Estimated attitude and angular rates

Fig.3 Kalman filter structure for state estimation Figure 2 shows a typical magnetic control result on a microsatellite with a gravity gradient boom. Pitch and roll oscillations (librations) are damped and a reference yaw rate (Z-spin) is maintained and changed by pulsing the Momentum Management

For satellites with reaction or momentum wheels, angular momentum build-up can occur over a period of time due to external disturbance torques on the spacecraft body. This momentum can be dumped using a magnetic control law similar to the cross-product controller of equation 4. The error vector e in this case is now calculated from the wheel angular momentum vector h. See figure 4 for a typical momentum dump of the Y -momentum wheel on UoSAT-12 [3] in about 3000 seconds (half an orbit) from the biased speed of -1000 rpm back to 0 rpm.
Y-momentum to Zero-bias control (9/6/99)
200

possible and all attitude angles over a period of 24 hours can since be maintained to within a RMS error of 3 degrees.
SNAP Magnetism Estimation
0.06 0.04 0.02

Am2

0 -0.02 -0.04 -0.06 -0.08 -0.1 -0.12 0 1000 2000 3000 4000 5000 6000 7000 8000 9000 10000

Mdx Mdy Mdz

Elapsed Time [sec]

Fig.5 Magnetic moment disturbance estimation result

RW-Y

Wheel speeds (rpm)

-200

-400

RW-X RW-Z

Conclusions 3-Axis magnetometers and magnetic torquers are now standard equipment on LEO spacecraft. They are low cost, power, mass and volume units making them ideal in small satellite applications. Magnetic interaction with the earths magnetic field is a cheap and robust way of satellite attitude control in LEO. Due to the small torques generated (milli-Nm order), the control effort can be slow with time constants of typically orbital period order. Successive magnetometer measurements and an IGRF model can be used to determine the spacecraft attitude and rate accurately in a Kalman filter. Magnetic attitude disturbances can be cancelled or compensated for, using magnetic torquers, if the disturbance moment vector is known or when it can be estimated in-orbit.

-600

-800

-1000 928964000

928967000 Unix Time

928970000

928973000

Fig.4 UoSAT-12 Y-Wheel momentum dumping using magnetic torquing Magnetic Disturbances Magnetic moments internal to the satellite caused by currents flowing in the harness, solar panels, permanent magnets, solenoid valves etc. can cause unwanted disturbances to the satellites attitude. In principle these disturbances can be compensated for using the magnetorquers, but they are not easy to predict or characterise in-orbit. A good example of this problem was experienced on SNAP-1 [4], SSTLs first nanosatellite. An unexpected result after detumbling was when SNAPs space pointing facet started to track the B-field vector like a compass needle. This could only be explained by the presence of a small internal magnetic moment in the Z -axis direction. The source was later identified as magnetic remanence in the thruster solenoid valves. Initial 3 -axis nadir pointing stabilisation of the satellite using a Y-momentum wheel was almost not possible due to this disturbance. To improve the stabilisation performance, accurate knowledge of the magnitude and direction of this disturbance moment was required. A Kalman-like recursive estimator was then used to determine the disturbance moment components in body axes from in-orbit attitude and rate estimates. See figure 5 for the estimation result. After partial cancellation of the estimated disturbance moment using the torqrods, 3-axis stabilisation was

References 1. WH Steyn, Comparison of Low-Earth Orbiting Satellite Attitude Controllers Submitted to Controllability Constraints, AIAA Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics, Vol.17, No.4, July-Aug.1994, pp.795-804. ML Psiaki, F Martel and PK Pal, Three-Axis Attitude determination via Kalman Filtering of Magnetometer Data, Journal of Guidance, Control, and Dynamics, Vol.13, No.3, May-June 1989, pp.506514. WH Steyn and Y Hashida, In-orbit Attitude and Orbit Control Commissioning of UoSAT-12, 4th ESA International Conference on Spacecraft Guidance, Navigation and Control Systems, ESTEC Noordwijk, The Netherlands, 18-21 Oct.1999. Proceedings: Session 3/3. WH Steyn and Y Hashida, In-orbit Attitude Performance of the 3-Axis Stabilised SNAP-1 Nanosatelllite, 15th Annual AIAA/USU Conference on

2.

3.

4.

Small Satellites, Utah State University, Logan USA, 13-16 Aug.2001, Proceedings: Session V/1.