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Spacecraft Attitude Determination and Control pp 410–435Cite as

Three-Axis Attitude Determination Methods

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Part of the book series: Astrophysics and Space Science Library ((ASSL,volume 73))

Abstract

Chapter 11 described deterministic procedures for computing the orientation of a single spacecraft axis and estimating the accuracy of this computation. The methods described there may be used either to determine single-axis attitude or the orientation of any single axis on a three-axis stabilized spacecraft. However, when the three-axis attitude of a spacecraft is being computed, some additional formalism is appropriate. The attitude of a single axis can be parameterized either as a three-component unit vector or as a point on the unit celestial sphere, but three-axis attitude is most conveniently thought of as a coordinate transformation which transforms a set of reference axes in inertial space to a set in the spacecraft. The alternative parameterizations for this transformation are described in Section 12.1. Section 12.2 then describes three-axis attitude determination methods, and Section 12.3 introduces the covariance analysis needed to estimate the uncertainty in three-axis attitude.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Microcosm, Inc., Torrance, CA, USA

    James R. Wertz

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  1. James R. Wertz
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Microcosm, Inc., Torrance, CA, USA

    James R. Wertz

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© 1978 D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, Holland

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Wertz, J.R. (1978). Three-Axis Attitude Determination Methods. In: Wertz, J.R. (eds) Spacecraft Attitude Determination and Control. Astrophysics and Space Science Library, vol 73. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-9907-7_12

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-9907-7_12

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-90-277-1204-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-009-9907-7

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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