PLANCK ORBIT CONTROL: A SPINNER'S FULLY AUTONOMOUS DELTA-V MANOEUVRES

This paper presents the Orbit Control Manoeuvres execution strategy to be used in the European Space Agency's Planck spinning S/C. This strategy has been developed to provide the S/C with the capability to perform, autonomously without ground intervention, from very small to very large orbit manoeuvres. The specifications for the S/C require the orbit manoeuvres to be performed with a high accuracy better than 1% of error, and to be executed in any target direction in the S/C body frame, respecting stringent attitude constraints. The deltaV is to be achieved autonomously by the AOCS control logic, without the use of accelerometers. The strategy designed consists in an on-board delta-V book-keeping function with compensation of attitude deviations and nutation minimisation during the pulses.