Single-Axis Pointing of a Magnetically Actuated Spacecraft

The use of magnetic actuators on Low Earth Orbiting spacecrafts represents an attractive solution because of its simplicity, reliability and a power-effective smooth modulation of control actions. Attitude regulation yet proves to be a challenging problem, since magnetic actuators alone do not allow providing three independent control torque components at each time instant. The goal of this paper is to derive a rigorous proof of global asymptotic stability for a magnetic control law that leads the satellite to a desired spin condition around a principal axis of inertia, pointing the spin axis towards a target direction in the inertial reference frame.