PASSIVE ATTITUDE STABILIZATION OF SMALL SATELLITES

Passive stabilization can drastically simplify the design of attitude control systems of Earth-oriented satellites with moderate pointing re quirements. Long tethers are attractive for passive attitude stabiliza tion because, at the expense of a small mass increment, they provide s trong restoring torques about the roll and pitch axes of the satellite . Consequently, reaction wheels and thrusters for pitch and roll contr ol can be eliminated, thereby saving propellant mass in direct proport ion to the mission duration. The attainable pointing accuracies, the m asses and inertia ratios required for passive attitude stabilization a re analyzed and discussed in this paper. Numerical results are derived for low and geostationary Earth's orbits for a class of small satelli tes.