# Tag Info

28

This is exactly how it works and how the orientation of many satellites is controlled. For example, the Hubble telescope has 4 fidget spinners installed, pointing in different directions - although they are commonly referred to as "reaction wheels". Unfortunately a typical fidget spinner is a bit too light to be really useful: We have to compare ...

2

Seems like usually 100 newtons - 440+ newtons of thrust. This depends on many different factors, though, including the gas being used, the pressure its being fired at, and the size of the nozzle/the mass of whats being fired. This wikipedia page has information about the gemini spacecrafts' thrusters. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reaction_control_system ...

2

It's possible to use reaction wheels to arbitrarily alter one's attitude, but a major limitation with reaction wheels is that if an object has rotational momentum and one wants it to maintain a constant attitude, the reaction wheel will have to spin forever unless or until one gives up on holding a constant attitude or one can transfer rotational momentum ...

2

I know this question is old, but I randomly discovered a solution requiring only three thrusters on one thruster block that works if we don't mind introducing small transverse velocities. We need a thruster block that has is three thrusters at ninety degrees from each other all tangental to the satellite's surface, or in other words, a typical RCS quad with ...

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