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From the article: "Meanwhile, the station's automated attitude control system had also noted […]" A spelling mistake that immediately brings to mind The Hitchhi

From the article: "Meanwhile, the station's automated attitude control system had also noted […]" A spelling mistake that immediately brings to mind The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and the Heart of Gold :-) Edit: it seems that it is not a spelling mistake. "Attitude" has only one meaning to me, but "attitude control" seems to be a technical term that I've never heard of.

aaronmdjones 5y ago
Where's the mistake? Attitude is the correct term.
krisoft 5y ago
“attitude” is the technical term in aerospace for the orientation of a vehicle. https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/35933/what-is-the-exact-meaning-of-attitude-does-it-include-translational-movement https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/35933/what-is-t... The instrument which shows how you are oriented is the attitude indicator: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attitude_indicator https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attitude_indicator The piloting skill of turning an upset airplane to right side up is called “unusual attitude recovery”: https://www.cfinotebook.net/notebook/maneuvers-and-procedures/airborne/unusual-attitudes https://www.cfinotebook.net/notebook/maneuvers-and-procedure... It is quite an interesting topic. Whole books were written about it. “Fundamentals of Spacecraft Attitude Determination and Control” is one I can warmly recommend. But if you just want a one sentence summary: “use quaternions” seems to be the prevailing wisdom.
- alisonkisk 5y ago
  Quaternions are a mathematical model. Are they also a mechanical solution?
  - krisoft 5y ago
    One can argue that the solution where they add a 4th gimbal to the stable platform to avoid the possibility of a gimbal lock is kinda-sorta a mechanical equivalent for a quaternion. See for example the famous exchange between CapCom and Apollo 11 Command Module Pilot Michael Collins: https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/30953/did-michael-collins-ask-for-a-fourth-gimbal-for-christmas-is-there-a-recording https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/30953/did-michael-... But when I wrote that really all I meant is that it is advised to use quaternions to represent the attitude information in the software which fills the gap between the sensors and the actuators.
avnigo 5y ago
Attitude is a term in geometry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orientation_(geometry) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orientation_(geometry)
smarx007 5y ago
ADCS is a well-known term, no spelling mistakes: https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/aeronautics-and-astronautics/16-851-satellite-engineering-fall-2003/lecture-notes/l9_acs.pdf https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/aeronautics-and-astronautics/16-...
TMWNN 5y ago
>Edit: it seems that it is not a spelling mistake. "Attitude" has only one meaning to me, but "attitude control" seems to be a technical term that I've never heard of. Anyone not aware of the definition of "attitude" relative[1] to this discussion should shut up. [1] Pun intended, not that ahofmann would know

aaronmdjones 5y ago

Where's the mistake? Attitude is the correct term.

krisoft 5y ago

“attitude” is the technical term in aerospace for the orientation of a vehicle. https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/35933/what-is-the-exact-meaning-of-attitude-does-it-include-translational-movement https://aviation.stackexchange.com/questions/35933/what-is-t... The instrument which shows how you are oriented is the attitude indicator: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attitude_indicator https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attitude_indicator The piloting skill of turning an upset airplane to right side up is called “unusual attitude recovery”: https://www.cfinotebook.net/notebook/maneuvers-and-procedures/airborne/unusual-attitudes https://www.cfinotebook.net/notebook/maneuvers-and-procedure... It is quite an interesting topic. Whole books were written about it. “Fundamentals of Spacecraft Attitude Determination and Control” is one I can warmly recommend. But if you just want a one sentence summary: “use quaternions” seems to be the prevailing wisdom.

alisonkisk 5y ago
Quaternions are a mathematical model. Are they also a mechanical solution?
- krisoft 5y ago
  One can argue that the solution where they add a 4th gimbal to the stable platform to avoid the possibility of a gimbal lock is kinda-sorta a mechanical equivalent for a quaternion. See for example the famous exchange between CapCom and Apollo 11 Command Module Pilot Michael Collins: https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/30953/did-michael-collins-ask-for-a-fourth-gimbal-for-christmas-is-there-a-recording https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/30953/did-michael-... But when I wrote that really all I meant is that it is advised to use quaternions to represent the attitude information in the software which fills the gap between the sensors and the actuators.

avnigo 5y ago

Attitude is a term in geometry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orientation_(geometry) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orientation_(geometry)

smarx007 5y ago

ADCS is a well-known term, no spelling mistakes: https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/aeronautics-and-astronautics/16-851-satellite-engineering-fall-2003/lecture-notes/l9_acs.pdf https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/aeronautics-and-astronautics/16-...

TMWNN 5y ago

>Edit: it seems that it is not a spelling mistake. "Attitude" has only one meaning to me, but "attitude control" seems to be a technical term that I've never heard of. Anyone not aware of the definition of "attitude" relative[1] to this discussion should shut up. [1] Pun intended, not that ahofmann would know