Petuhov

This authors briefly describe a promising active-passive control system of angular movement of a small spacecraft (by an example of nano-satellites) based on a construction with a gravitational stabiliser and micro-thrusters. Operating modes of the micro-thrusters’ control block were proposed; they were passive mode, initial stabilisation mode, stabilisation and orientation modes. Formulas for determining the required number of micro-thrusters for a small-sized spacecraft in each mode were presented. The main advantages of the proposed active-passive control system of angular movement and applications of a small-sized spacecraft equipped with this system were also described.