Developing Attitude Control for Suborbital Module Based on Cold Gas Thrusters and Using Quaternion Feedback

This paper presents the control design for large angle and high rotation rates maneuvers using reaction cold gas thrusters. Navigation system provides suborbital attitude changes in terms of quaternion. Cold gas thrusters with pulse-width pulsefrequency modulation provide nearly proportional control torques. The use of quaternion as attitude errors for large angle feedback control in a suborbital capsule is investigated. Numerical simulations demonstrate the practical feasibility of a three-axis large angle maneuver.