Patent ID: 6908064

Claim:
A spacecraft, comprising: at least one ΔV thruster for producing thrust in a particular direction, the thrust of said at least one ΔV thruster being subject to thrust errors which tend to cause disturbance torques: at least one reaction wheel for counteracting said disturbance torques; at least one control thruster for torquing said spacecraft for thereby imparting momentum to said spacecraft; and control means coupled to said at least one control thruster and to said at least one reaction wheel, for (a) during a velocity change maneuver, predicting the total momentum change at the end of said velocity change maneuver attributable to said ΔV thruster, and (b) causing said at least one control thruster to operate during said velocity change maneuver to tend to null a momentum error which includes at least the predicted value of said total momentum change at the end of said velocity change maneuver which is attributable to said ΔV thruster.