Distributed Actuation for Scalable Attitude Control of an On-Orbit Assembled Space Structure

On-orbit assembly requires an attitude control scheme that can adapt to changing mass properties as the spacecraft is assembled. We propose a distributed attitude control scheme in which actuators such as reaction wheels and thrusters are spread throughout a modular space structure aboard a series of independent control modules. This work investigates methods for using the proposed distributed attitude control scheme to scale torque capacity in response to increasing inertia.