Motion control of a space robot at launching and approaching a geostationary satellite

Abstract The problems of putting a space robot into a geostationary orbit using a combined scheme and its approach to an information geostationary satellite are considered. When approaching, the robot’s attitude and orbit control system uses an electric propulsion unit, a propulsion system based on eight electro-catalytic reaction engines with pulse-width modulation of their thrust, and a gyroscopic moment cluster based on four single gimbal control moment gyroscopes (gyrodines). Numerical results are presented that demonstrate the effectiveness of the developed discrete guidance and control algorithms.