Modelling Spacecraft Control Systems for On-Orbit Manufacturing Using Quaternion-Based Variational Integration

This paper presents the application of discrete variational mechanics to spacecraft attitude dynamics using quaternion state variables. A general method is introduced for spacecraft dynamic system by deriving a variational integrators and quaternion state variables. The designed integrators demonstrate the behaviour of momentum and realistic energy which is comparable computational cost and less than a low order Runge-Kutta methods, it is suggestable for both real- time estimation and simulation of control application.