| Summary: | Spacecraft flight dynamics is the science of space vehicle orientation and control in three dimensions. Three critical flight dynamics parameters are similar to those of aircraft: the angles of rotation in three dimensions about the vehicle's center of mass, known as pitch, roll and yaw. For spacecraft, there is an additional dynamic parameter which is translation in spa that shifts a vehicle or satellite from one defined orbit to another. Flight dynamics in spacecraft is normally achieved by the "Attitude and Orbit control subsystem" (AOCS) and can be divided into attitude control and orbit control. The attitude of a vehicle is its orientation with respect to a defined frame of reference. Satellite attitude control or flight dynamics refers to the techniques employed to keep the attitude inside a predefined range of values. Attitude dynamics is the modeling of the changing position and orientation of a vehicle, due to external forces acting on the body. Attitude control is the purposeful manipulation of controllable external forces (using vehicle actuators) to establish a desired attitude, whereas attitude determination is the utilization of vehicle sensors to ascertain the current vehicle attitude Mathematical and physical treatment of the basic aspects of these topics is well developed, but the field is quite active with respect to advanced topics and applications .
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