Spacecraft attitude control

The varying mass properties during long timescales of construction on orbit complicate design of the attitude control system. The SPARC lab develops strategies for efficient attitude control during ISAM by integrating the environmental disturbance torques with the dynamics of the construction process.

For example, we have shown the feasibility of passive gravity gradient capture, an approach which uses the combined effects of gravity gradient torques and changing mass properties to yield a stable final orientation after construction (Bhundiya et al., 2026). Through experiments on air-bearing platforms, we have also investigated how manufacturing artifacts such as metal springback affect the attitude dynamics and cause flexible vibrations (Bhundiya et al., 2025).