Gravitational torque on a satellite vehicle

✍ Scribed by Robert E. Robertson

• Book ID: 103082717
• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1958
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 405 KB
• Volume: 265
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0016-0032
• DOI: 10.1016/0016-0032(58)90664-1

✦ Synopsis

Using a potential function for a small rigid body in the field of an oblate spheroid developed previously by Roberson and Tatistcheff, the gravitational torque on a satellite vehicle in the field of the earth is found. Results are the torque components along the satellite principal axes. The defining relationships are not completely reduced for large angular motions of the satellite, but torque components are found explicitly in terms of the angles of attitude deviation from a desired attitude reference for the small-angle case.