Attitude Control of a Spacecraft Using Nonlinear Lyapunov-based Controller with Multiple Sloshing Modes

The instability of the spacecraft and its deviation from the desired attitude is the product of the phenomenon of fluid sloshing in its tank. This is especially important while maneuvering, so that lack of attention leads to the failure of the space mission. In this paper, for the first time, a moving pulse two-ball model is used to model fuel sloshing in the semi-full tank of the spacecraft. As well as for the first time, for simultaneous control of the spacecraft and fuel sloshing, a classical controller, an LQR controller and a Lyapunov nonlinear controller have been designed. Fuel sloshing was modeled using the moving pulse two-ball model and the coupled dynamics equations of the spacecraft and the fuel masses are derived using Lagrangian equations. The results of simulations show that the proposed modeling and designed controllers to simultaneously control the fuel sloshing and attitude of the spacecraft have an acceptable.