Verfahren zur Orientierung eines synchronisierten Satelliten.

摘要

The invention is a method of orienting a satellite (2) in a geosynchronous orbit so as to direct a beam from an antenna (11) mounted on the satellite to cover a desired target site (6), and pointing the beam axis at a desired bore site target (66). One embodiment of the method according to the invention includes a step of orienting the spin axis (13) of a geosynchronous satellite (2) at a direction angle ( OMEGA ) which equals the inclination angle (I) of the current orbital plane (15) plus an adjustment or correction angle ( beta ), when the inclination angle is greater than zero. The correction angle is determined using one or both of the following equations: beta = BS - tan-1 {[sin (bs-I]/[6.61 - cos (bs-I)]}, or beta = @ (BS - tan-1 {[sin (bs - I)]/[6.61 - cos (bs - I)]}) @, where, BS = the elevation angle of the bore site target (66) in spacecraft coordinates, bs = the latitude of the bore site target, I = the inclination angle of the orbital plane (15) with respect to the equatorial plane, and beta = the correction angle with respect to orbit-normal to point the axis (112) of the beam at the desired bore site target. The step of orienting the satellite at the direction angle is performed by using thrusters. A magnetic torquing system could also be used.