Motion Control of a Multipurpose Laboratory Module with the Use of a Propulsion Unit

The motion control of the Nauka Multipurpose Laboratory Module (MLM) during its flight to the International Space Station (ISS) is considered. For maneuvering and angular stabilization, a propulsion system is used as an actuator. In order to ensure simultaneous control of the motion of the center of mass of the spacecraft (SC) and its stabilization with the help of engines at each moment of time, it is necessary to solve the problems of determining the required change in the speed of the SC, choosing the optimal configuration of the engines, and the problem of predicting the motion parameters of the SC. Methods for solving these problems, applied in the development of the control system of the Multipurpose Laboratory Module, are presented. The operability of the described algorithms is confirmed by the results of mathematical modeling on a ground test bench for onboard software and in the course of flight design tests directly during the flight and successful docking on the ISS.