Abstract
A control system is proposed for a low Earth orbit gravity gradient stabilised microsatellite using Z wheel. The microsatellite is 3-axis stabilized using a yaw reaction wheel, with dual redundant 3-axis magnetorquers. Two vector magnetometers and four dual sun sensors are carried in order to determine the full attitude. The attitude was estimated using an Euler angles (small libration version) on based extended Kalman filter (EKF). After the satellite has been detumbled and deploy the gravity gradient boom, in order to have the accurate Nadir pointing we will use the Z zero-bias mode controller. The Z momentum wheel will be damped by the magnetorquers. This paper describes the attitude determination and control system design of LEO microsatellite using Z reaction wheel for yaw phase mode control and Z disturbance cancellation during X thruster firings for orbit maneuvers.