Attitude Determination & Control

Satellites and other spacecraft require an Attitude Control System (ACS) or Attitude Determination And Control (ADAC) system to alter their orientation with respect to a desired reference frame. For many applications, including imaging and data transmission, challenging design requirements such as low jitter and high agility must be carefully optimized and balanced.

Honeybee Robotics is developing a family of high torque, low power Control Moment Gyroscope (CMG) attitude control actuators for small satellites, called TORC (Tiny Operationally Responsive CMG). Smaller and less power-hungry than similarly sized reaction wheels, TORC actuators greatly enhance the agility of a small satellite with limited mass, volume, and power resources.

Honeybee’s experience with miniature high-reliability mechanisms, combined with specialized input from industry-recognized CMG experts, has put TORC on the cutting edge of ACS technology. High performance and low cost, TORC is suitable for both commercial / institutional projects as well as more demanding DoD and NASA applications.