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ATTITUDE AND ORBIT CONTROL SYSTEM FOR THE EUROPEAN STUDENT

MOON ORBITER (ESMO)

D.E. Chiuri
1
, A. Pilati
1
, A. Turconi
1
, F. Capolupo
1
, C.L. Prioroc
2
, R.M. Stefanescu
2
.

1
Politecnico di Milano, Dipartimento di Ingegneria Aerospaziale, via La Masa 34, 20156 Milano, Italy.
2
Universitatea POLITEHNICA din Bucuresti, Splaiul Independenei 133, 060042 Bucharest, Romania.
chiuri.d.emanuele@gmail.com



ABSTRACT

ESMO is an educational mini-satellite project of the European Space Agency, planned to be the first student
mission to the Moon. More than 20 student teams across Europe from the ESA Member States and ESA
Cooperating States are currently working on the project. The launch is currently scheduled for 2014. ESMO
objective is to reach lunar orbit and take images of the Moon.
The AOCS is up to provide Sun and Moon pointing and thrust direction control during manoeuvres. Because
of the educational background of the mission, low cost is one of the main drivers. In the paper, the strategies
adopted to deal with this problem will be described. The AOCS is under responsibility of two teams from
Politecnico di Milano (AOCS1) and University Politechnica Bucharest (AOCS2).
AOCS1 duty is the design of the subsystem, the choice of h/w units and the design of AOCS software
interfaces and algorithms, excluding the attitude determination and the control law, which are AOCS2 duty.
The AOCS hardware baseline features sensors: 2 Star Trackers (built by SUPAERO - Tolouse), 2 Sun
Sensors and 2 Inertial Measurement Units; and actuators: 4 Attitude Control Thrusters (built by Stuttgart
University) and 4 Reaction Wheels. Sun Sensors, IMUs and wheels are to be provided by AOCS1. The paper
will include a description of the Extended Kalman Filter used for the attitude determination based on the
dynamics and kinematics of the satellite written in terms of angular rates and quaternions. It is also described
the fault detection algorithm in which Student-t and chi-square tests are applied for the residuals generated
using the EKF and the measurements. Two control laws are implemented and will be presented: a PD
(Proportional Derivative) control and a LQ (Linear Quadratic) optimization. The paper features simulation
results, by means of software testing and validation, proving AOCS subsystem performance against the
mission requirements.






1. Introduction about ESMO/AOCS
The European Student Moon Orbiter (ESMO) is a mission within European Space Agencys (ESA) Education
Satellite Programme. It is the fourth student satellite mission after SSETI Express, YES2 and European Student
Earth Orbiter.
A great number of students, more than 200, in 21 universities from 11 countries are involved in this project
which is at Preliminary Design Review at the end of Phase B.
SSTL is the System Prime Contractor and has the role of manager of the project and technical supporter for
students.
Being an educational mission, the budget allocated for it is really low if compared to other lunar missions. Most
of the spacecraft hardware, ground support systems and payload are expected to come from the student teams, in
coordination with universities and SSTL. The fundamental purpose of ESMO is, however, the training of
student teams, which are coordinated by SSTL with assistance from ESA in areas where ECSS standards are to
be used. The challenge for the management is to deal with language limitations and academic schedules, exams
and holidays.
All the university teams are led by a professor, who acts as an academic supervisor and takes responsibility for
the delivery of the team. For the universities, main technical contacts at SSTL are the mentors, who support the
student in their activities; moreover, both mentors and universities communicate with the System engineers,

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who assure that the design of each subsystem is coherent with that of all the others, leading the requirements
owing down process and holding the mass and power budgets.


Fig. 1: AOCS team logo

2. Objectives
The ESMO spacecraft is designed to be launched as a secondary payload in 2014 and to reach Moon orbit where
it will spent its operative life.
Mission main objectives are:
- to launch the first lunar spacecraft to be designed, built and operated by students across ESA Member
States and ESA Cooperating States
- to provide in-orbit opportunities to demonstrate and test novel scientific experiments
- to place and operate the spacecraft in a lunar orbit
- to acquire images of the Moon from a stable lunar orbit and transmit them back to Earth for education
outreach purposes
- to perform new measurements relevant to advanced technology demonstration, lunar science and
exploration
To reach these objectives, the initial baseline of the spacecraft is composed by: an on-board chemical propulsion
system, an attitude control system operating with reaction wheels and cold gas thrusters, omni-directional
antennas, body-mounted solar panels, on-board data handling system using CAN bus.
The payloads available are:
- Narrow Angle Camera (NAC)
- Passive Microwave Radiometer
- Radiation monitor
- Telecommunication experiment
To each team it has been assigned the design of a subsystem or unit of the spacecraft.
The Attitude and Orbit Control System (AOCS) is duty of several teams organized as follows:
- AOCS1 from Politecnico di Milano, from Milano, Italy, responsible of the system design
- AOCS2 from Politehcnica Universitatea din Bucharesti, from Bucharest, Romania, responsible of the
software design
- AIM from Czech Technical University, from Prague, Czech Republic, responsible of AOCS Interface
Module
- STAR from SUPAERO, from Toulouse, France, responsible of Star Trackers
- PSGF from University of Stuttgart, from Stuttgart, Germany, responsible of Cold Gas Thrusters


Fig. 2: Spacecraft view

Fig. 3: Spacecraft geometric reference system

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3. Requirements
The subsystem tasks are derived from the System and Mission Requirements [3].
According to ESMO System Requirements Document, the AOCS subsystem shall maintain the required attitude
and stability for each different mode and actual operation situations. The main requirements for this subsystem
deal with spacecraft pointing accuracy and overall stability; the AOCS is required to be capable of:
- maintaining a safe attitude after separation from the launcher
- providing all the necessary capabilities and performances to maintain an autonomous attitude control
around three orthogonal axes according to an on-board attitude profile
- keeping the spacecraft attitude pointing, rates and accelerations within the mission requirements for all
the different modes of operation and mission phases
- performing any satellite slew required by the mission
- keeping out of any pointing exclusion zone imposed by instrument or star tracker pointing constraints
in the relevant mission phases,
- providing all the necessary attitude control capabilities and performances to perform trajectory
manoeuvres with the propulsion subsystem as required by the mission to transfer and enter into the
operational lunar orbit
- autonomously unloading the reaction wheels when they draw near to saturation in a safe manner
- supplying, in the housekeeping telemetry, all necessary data to allow on-ground attitude and orbit
determination in addition to autonomous attitude determination on-board as well as perform on-board
anomaly investigation
- placing and maintaining the spacecraft platform and instrument in a safe attitude in case of loss of
nominal attitude during any phase of the mission, as well as of recovering the nominal pointing within
the outage requirements, in both the full and partially filled propellant tanks cases (if applicable)
4. H/W solutions
As easily understandable, the pointing requests are the more demanding requirements for the subsystem.
Given the several slews for NAC imaging and burn manoeuvres and the accuracy required, the AOCS features a
3-axis control. The subsystem includes sensors and actuators; their selection is critical and depends, once again,
on the requirements owing down from Mission level. For the initial Despin, an Inertial Measurement Unit
(IMU) is fundamental, for measuring the angular rates; in fact, that type of hardware is commonly used in most
of the space missions. The requirement on the Sun pointing attitude makes necessary to have at least one Sun
sensor; the accuracy required for NAC imaging is obtained with a star tracker. The NAC imaging accuracy can
be obtained with a package of at least 3 reaction wheels. As already said, the system also features four Attitude
Control Thrusters (ACT), which are used to de-spin and point the Sun during in the earlier phases of the mission
and for wheels momentum dumping. As previously pointed out, the precision during the burn manoeuvres is
critical, especially when the S/C is close to the WSB or at lunar orbit insertion. In these cases, it's very important
that the AOCS doesn't exceed the requirements on the errors, because otherwise the S/C might not reach the
Moon at all. Because the torque of other actuators would be insufficient, the MEN off-modulation is the design
baseline: the ignition and shutting off times of the engines are controlled by the AOCS software, so that the
attitude pointing error is kept under the allowed limit. These sensors and actuators are to be used in different
ways in various mission situations. Because of this, several modes for the AOCS software define what hardware
is utilized in each phase, including nominal and emergency situations.


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Fig. 4: Subsystem hardware configuration

4.1. Sensors
In order to comply with 5 degrees accuracy Sun pointing requirements at least one two-axes Sun Sensor is
needed. In order to provide redundancy the Sun Sensor package is raised to 2 sensors. The sensors are pointed
towards the positive y-axis. Both are mounted on the edge between the solar panels and are cold redundant. In
order to complete the de-spinning, the initial angular velocity has to be measured. In that phase the Star Tracker
isn't operating yet. Then another sensor is needed to measure angular velocity. It was decided to mount two
MEMS Rate Sensor (MRS) units (one for redundancy), with a measuring range complying with the worst
possible spinning rate conditions due to the last stage release, but the resolution must be sufficient in order to
make possible the control with the desired accuracy. During the nominal mode, the most demanding pointing
performance is needed for NAC operation. In order to achieve this performance a Star Tracker STR is
necessary; for redundancy purposes, two are mounted; the star trackers are cold redundant. The sensors may
require calibration in order to enable them to work at their maximum accuracy.


Fig. 5: Star Trackers position

Fig. 6: Sun Sensors position


4.2. Actuators
AOCS software will be also in charge to control all the actuators, including the main thrusters, and to provide
off-modulation control of the main engines during burns and wheel off-loading using the attitude control
thrusters. Every actuation is in fact accomplished by means of reaction wheels and attitude control thrusters in
all the situations apart from the main engines burns when the control will be achieved only thanks to the main

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engines off-modulation. For redundancy purposes four Reaction Wheels (RW) are mounted, complying with
maximum slew and disturbances counteraction requirements, three of them used in case of no wheel failure with
the fourth wheel activated in case of a wheel failure; to perform the wheel momentum dumping four ACTs are
used. As a propellant, they exploit the pressurant in the main propulsion system tank; Stuttgart team selected
Helium as current baseline, in order to lower the system mass. Their function is also fundamental at the
beginning of the mission, after release from the launch vehicle: De-spin and first Sun acquisition shall be
performed quickly with a high reliability by the ACT. Their thrust results from a trade-off:
- high thrust for shorter de-spinning time
- low thrust for convenient RWs desaturation


Fig. 7: ACT configuration

5. Modes
AOCS will operate in different configuration based on the different situation the S/C will be. For each
configuration a proper set of sensors/actuator will be used, and proper functions of the AOCS software will
control ESMO with the chosen accuracy. These configurations are called Modes. Of course modes are not only
a feature of the Subsystem but also of the whole satellite.
In Table 1 there is a simple list of the AOCS modes and of the S/C modes in which they are used.

Table 1: AOCS modes
S/C Mode AOCS Mode AOCS Mode ID
LEOP
Initial Checkout CHK
De-spin DSPN
Sun Acquisition SACQ
Sun Pointing SPNT
Nominal Normal Control NCTRL
Non Critical Manoeuvre
Critical Manoeuvre
Normal Control
Burn Preparation BPREP
Burn BURN
Safe
De-spin
Sun Acquisition
Sun Pointing


6. S/W and Controller
In the next paragraphs an overview of the attitude estimator and attitude controller is presented.

6.1 Estimator design
The choice of the EKF as estimator of the satellite attitude is due to the non-linearitys that appear in the
satellite dynamics [8]. The state vector to be estimated includes the rates, bias and the attitude in terms of the
quaternion, using the dynamics and kinematics equations of the satellite as in [19].

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The driving accuracy requirements for the estimator is during Burn Mode as the only attitude sensors available
are the MRS, so the estimator is used to determine the 3-axis satellite attitude for as long as one hour with an
APE of 1deg. As for NAC Imaging, where the smallest APE is required, the STR is in the loop.

Fig. 8: Estimator block diagram

In the ESMO mission, the current estimator design is a ten state additive EKF, used to determine the 3-axis
satellite attitude information using sensor measurements from STR, SS and MRS (MEMS Rate Sensors) and
provide to the controller the estimated attitude and angular rates (Fig. 8). The STR is mainly used for initializing
the EKF, once the estimator has converged, the STR quaternion is not required anymore and the attitude is
estimated using the MRS and SS, or just the MRS if the Sun is not in the SS FOV or the SS is not in use. The SS
can give only 2-axes worth attitude information and the MRS gives 3-axes worth attitude rate information, so
the MRS have to be calibrated a few times a day due to the bias drift.
In the MRS calibration process, the estimator is used to determine MRS offset, by estimating a set of angular
rates using the Star Tracker measurements and then compare the estimated rates with the MRS measurements.
The gyro bias is corrected once the Star Tracker measurements are available to the estimator.

6.2 Controller design
Using a set of algorithms that transforms the informations received from the Estimator (therefore from the
Sensors) the controller is sending the necessary torques to the actuators to obtain the desired attitude.
- PD controller
A closed loop feedback system based on a proportional derivative (PD) controller will be used for the attitude
control. Considering the spacecraft mode (de-spin, Sun pointing, normal control) ACTs or/and Reaction Wheels
will be used.
As we can see in Fig. 9 the PD controller is consisting of two control loops. The internal loop controls the
angular velocities of the spacecraft, sending torques commands to the system and is used in de-spin mode. The
external loop (together with the internal loop) controls the attitude, sending information to reaction wheels.


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Fig. 9: Control block diagram

PD control law design form is


u = (K
p
q
e
+ K
D
w) (1)
The PD controller calculation involves two parameters: quaternion error and angular rate. The attitude controller
performance is analyzed in terms of the mean and standard quaternion deviations from the desired attitude due
to perturbations.

- LQ Controller
The LQ design is based on the control law

u(t) = Kx(t) [17]. The aim consists in determining the gain K and
the weighting factors. The gain matrix has to minimize the cost function, which makes the connection between
the system states and control commands and represents the deviation from measurements and desired values.
The weighting matrices are symmetric and positive definite. We choose this matrix taking into account the
specified design goals.

7. Preliminary Results
To dimension the system and to verify its functionality, a campaign of simulation and test is planned. This
verification starts with the analysis of the most critical situations for the subsystem, checking the ability to
control the spacecraft and to obtain the required accuracy. For this purpose we considered the de-tumbling/de-
spinning of the satellite (both at release from the launcher and at starting of safe mode) and the pointing in lunar
orbit. In the former situation, what is important is the mass of cold gas used for the manoeuvre, for the latter it is
the error of the attitude.
As a starting point for the simulations, some assumptions have been done to start the iteration for dimensioning
trade-off.
Regarding de-tumbling/de-spinning the ACT activation transient is neglected, it is assumed to have one
reaction wheel on each axis; the Sun sensors field of view is 100x100 degrees centred on the y-axis, it is
assumed they measure two angles, called ss
1
(azimuthal) and ss
2
(elevation), thus identifying the Sun vector (see
Fig. 7); every error associated with the sensors has not been modelled; the currently available matrix of inertia is
diagonal (wet spacecraft):
(
(
(

=
0 . 18 0 0
0 8 . 27 0
0 0 1 . 30
wet
I

The control used in this analysis is a simple trigger, which activates the ACTs if the error is in magnitude
greater than u
+
on
or u
-
on
and deactivate them if the error is in magnitude smaller than u
+
off
or u
-
off
. This type of
controller represents only a first solution and possibly won't be the one that will actually be on the spacecraft.
Nevertheless, it's reasonable to assume that the definitive controller and algorithms are going to be more
efficient than what is presented here; the gas budget resulting from these preliminary analysis will then be

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higher than the definitive one. The control is done on the velocities (in De-spin, Sun acquisition/pointing) and
on the angles (when in Sun acquisition/pointing modes) with a frequency of 4 Hz.


Table 2: Trigger parameters: 5-degree (10-degree) accuracy
Parameter Velocity [rpm] Angles [deg]
u
+
on
-0.45 -4 (-9)
u
+
off
-0.4 -3 (-8)
u
-
on
0.4 3 ( 8)
u
-
off
0.45 4 ( 9)



Fig. 10: Sun sensor measurements

In order to evaluate the gas budget for the De-spin, Sun acquisition and Sun pointing modes, a program has been
assembled. The manoeuvres, which the S/C shall perform to complete these AOCS tasks, obviously depend on
the initial conditions on angular velocities and attitudes. For this reason and to explore a wider range of
possibilities, several initial attitudes have been considered in the analysis, as shown in Table 3.
The target direction is of course the Sun vector; as previously said, main AOCS task here is to align the y-axis
with this Sun vector. Attitude #3 is a typical situation at the end of a successful Sun pointing manoeuvre
and is useful to estimate how much gas would be necessary if AOCS was asked to maintain the Sun pointing
with the ACT.

Table 3:S/C initial attitude for simulations
ID Initial Attitude
#1 x-axis opposite to target direction
#2 y-axis opposite to target direction
#3 y-axis 5deg away from target direction


In all cases, simulation time is 6000 s. In Table 4 the results are summarized, with initial angular velocities up to
5 rpm, in order to test the performance of the system in extreme situations, like for instance a Safe mode
entrance. In the worst case, the De-spin phase is over in 187 seconds. Sun acquisition ends when the Sun is in
sight and the error on the two axes is no more than 15 degrees.


Table 4:De-spin/De-tumbling simulations results
ID Scenario Initial Attitude
S/C initial angular
speed [rpm]
Gas budget
[Kg]
Despin
time [s]
Sun Acq.
Time [s]
S1 Release from Launcher 1 [1.5 1.5 1.5] 0.032 53 54
S2 Release from Launcher 2 [1.5 1.5 1.5] 0.023 53 1187
S3 Safe Mode entrance 1 [5 5 5] 0.065 186 187
S4 Safe Mode entrance 2 [5 5 5] 0.061 186 606
S5 Sun Pointing maintenance 3 [0.2 0.4 0.1] 0.016 -- --


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Fig. 11: Despin from 5rpm. Angular speed

Fig. 12: Despin from 5rpm. Sun Pointing error

For the controller and estimator performance simulations we considered the following: the ESMO satellite
orbiting the Moon on an elliptic polar orbit, with the Apoapsis 16143 km, Periapsis 279 km, Eccentricity 0.8,
Inclination 56.2 deg., Argument of periapsis 270 deg has been considered. The simulation time was 3000
seconds; during this period the satellite has acquired a desired (nadir) pointing attitude and kept it constant.
The estimated attitude and angular rates (Fig. 13and Fig. 14), during Moon orbit, are determined using
informations received from Star Tracker (STR) and MRS.
The satellite had a random initial attitude and was perturbed by the Moon gravity gradient torques and solar
pressure. Has been considered one axis oriented perpendicular to the surface of the Moon, one axis along the
orbit velocity and the third is completing the right hand orthogonal frame. Once the S/C has acquired the nadir
pointing quaternion, the Moon gravity gradient torques was considerably smaller.



Fig. 13: Estimated attitude [deg]

Fig. 14: Estimated angular rates error [rad/sec]


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Figure 15: Moon Gravity Gradient and Solar pressure
Disturbance Torques [Nm]

Figure 16: Commanded control torques [Nm]


Figure 17: Angular rates control [rad/sec]

Figure 18: Attitude error [deg]


During the period when the satellite is maintaining the desired attitude, we have calculated the mean of the
pointing error and the standard deviation (3) from it.

Table 5: Mean and standard deviation error
Pitch [deg] Yaw [deg] Roll [deg]
Mean error 0.2117 0.1965 - 0.0502
Standard Deviation 0.0712 0.0127 0.0476
Total (RSS) 0.0865
8. Conclusions
The simulations have shown that the system is capable of de-spinning the spacecraft and pointing the Sun in a
wide range of possible initial conditions.
As expected, the gas consumption depends on the starting spinning/tumbling speed of the spacecraft but not too
much from its starting attitude.
The amount of propellant needed seems reasonable with reference to ESMO tank capability. The duration of
the De-spin/De-tumble manoeuvre, instead, is quite excessive but a finer control law and a better modulation of
ACT can drastically reduce it.
We have observed that the standard deviation is small, so the main issue is to reduce the mean pointing error.
The current controller design is meeting pointing requirements, as the Root Sum Square (RSS) in the current
controller configuration is 0.0865 deg and the requirement is 0.096 deg.
We also observed that the mean is grater as we decrease the AOCS cycle rate, therefore working on a slower
rate than 1Hz will increase the mean pointing error, as well if we increase the cycle rate, the mean pointing error
will decrease.


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9. REFERENCES
[1] Various Authors, Development of the ESMO student Moon satellite gets under way,
http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEM8Z8YRA0G_index_0.html
[2] Various Authors, ESMO Fact Sheet, http://esamultimedia.esa.int/docs/edu/ESMO_fact_sheet_20101111.pdf
[3] Various Authors, ESMO Mission Requirements Document, 2011
[4] European Cooperation for Space Standardization, Space engineering control performance, 2008
[5] Various Authors, ESMO AOCS1 Requirements Document, 2011
[6] W.J. Larson, J.R. Wertz, Space Mission Analysis and Design. Third Edition, Space Technology Library,
2001
[7] Various Authors, ESMO AOCS1 Design Description and Justification File, 2011
[8] J.R. Wertz, Spacecraft Attitude Determination and Control, Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1978
[9] Various Authors, ESMO AOCS1 Concept of Operations file, 2011
[10] P.C. Hughes, Spacecraft Attitude Dynamics, 1986
[11] B. Wie, Space Vehicle Dynamics and Control ST Library, 2008
[12] M.H. Kaplan, Modern Spacecraft Dynamics and Control, John Wiley & Sons, 1976
[13] F.P.J. Rimrott, Introductory Attitude Dynamics, Springer-Verlag, 1989
[14] D. Sheinfeld, Optimal despin of a tumbling satellite with an arbitrary thruster configuration, inertia matrix and
cost functional
[15] R.S. Sanchez Pena, Attitude Control, 2005
[16] K. Ogata, Modern Control Engineering, 2002
[17] J. P. Hespanha, Undergraduate lecture notes on LQG/LQR controller design, 2007
[18] M. Sidi, Spacecraft dynamics and control, 1997
[19] E.J. Lefferts,L.F. Markley, M.D. Shuster, Kalman Filtering for Spacecraft Attitude Estimator, 1982