Experience in the development, building and usage of a magnetic attitude control system for small satellites

Attitude control systems which provide small satellites with a required angular motion developing the control torque through interaction with the geomagnetic field are considered. They can be passive or active in regard with the purpose of a satellite. Relatively low accuracy of orientation achieved by such systems can be ether accepted due to the purpose of the satellite or can be compensated through preprocessing the payload data. Next, the magnetic attitude control systems developed for the latest years are presented.