ATTITUDE-CONTROL SYSTEM CONCEPTUAL DESIGN FOR GEOSTATIONARY OPERATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL SATELLITE SPACECRAFT SERIES

The next generation of the Geostationary Operational Environmental Sat ellite (GOES-N) will require extremely stringent pointing performance for improved weather prediction. These spacecraft will employ high-pre cision gyros and star trackers in a unique control system design conce pt to achieve the end-to-end pointing performance at the focal plane o f the instruments. This paper presents the GOES-N attitude control sys tem conceptual design, sensor complement trade-offs, attitude determin ation theory, and system performance expectations.