Orbital Manuvering System Design and Performance For the Magnetosperic Multiscale Constellation

The Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) mission, launched on March 13, 2015, is the fourth mission of NASA's Solar Terrestrial Probe program. The MMS mission consists of four identically instrumented observatories that function as a constellation to provide the first definitive study of magnetic reconnection in space. Since it is frequently desirable to isolate electric and magnetic field sensors from stray effects caused by the spacecraft's core-body, the suite of instruments on MMS includes six radial and two axial instrument-booms with deployed lengths ranging from 5-60 meters (see Figure 1). The observatory is spin-stabilized about its positive z-axis with a nominal rate slightly above 3 rev/min (RPM). The spin is also used to maintain tension in the four radial wire-booms. Each observatory's Attitude Control System (ACS) consists of digital sun sensors, star cameras, accelerometers, and mono-propellant hydrazine thrusters-responsible for orbital adjustments, attitude control, and spin adjustments. The sections that follow describe performance requirements, the hardware and algorithms used for 6-DOF estimation, and then similarly for 6-DOF control. The paper concludes with maneuver performance based on both simulated and on-orbit telem.