2 ms·
“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-
by 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 agoQuaternions are a mathematical model. Are they also a mechanical solution?
- krisoft 5y agoOne 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.