Attitude control system conceptual design for Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite spacecraft series

Abstract

The next generation of the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES-N) will require extremely stringent pointing performance for improved weather prediction. These spacecraft will employ high-precision gyros and star trackers in a,unique control system design concept to achieve the end-to-end pointing performance at the focal plane of the instruments. This paper presents the GOES-N attitude control system conceptual design, sensor complement trade-offs, attitude determination theory, and system performance expectations.