scenarioAttitudePointing

Overview

Demonstrates how to stabilize the attitude tumble without translational motion. This script sets up a 6-DOF spacecraft, but without specifying any orbital motion. Thus, this scenario simulates the spacecraft translating in deep space. The scenario is a simplified version of scenarioAttitudeFeedback with the orbital setup removed.

The script is found in the folder basilisk/examples and executed by using:

python3 scenarioAttitudePointing.py

As with scenarioAttitudeFeedback, when the simulation completes 3 plots are shown for the MRP attitude history, the rate tracking errors, as well as the control torque vector.

The simulation layout is shown in the following illustration. A single simulation process is created which contains both the spacecraft simulation modules, as well as the Flight Software (FSW) algorithm modules.

../_images/test_scenarioAttitudePointing.svg

Illustration of Simulation Results

show_plots = True, useLargeTumble = False

Here a small initial tumble is simulated. The resulting attitude and control torque histories are shown below. The spacecraft quickly regains a stable orientation without tumbling past 180 degrees.

../_images/scenarioAttitudePointing10.svg ../_images/scenarioAttitudePointing20.svg
show_plots = True, useLargeTumble = True

Note that, as expected, the orientation error tumbles past 180 degrees before stabilizing to zero. The control torque effort is also much larger in this case.

../_images/scenarioAttitudePointing11.svg ../_images/scenarioAttitudePointing21.svg
scenarioAttitudePointing.run(show_plots, useLargeTumble)[source]

The scenarios can be run with the followings setups parameters:

Parameters:
  • show_plots (bool) – Determines if the script should display plots

  • useLargeTumble (bool) – Specify if a large initial tumble rate should be used