Control Moment Gyroscopes for Spacecraft Attitude Control Systems: History of Development.

The article is devoted to the development and application of control moment gyroscopes used for active triaxial attitude control of spacecraft. These gyroscopes belong to the class of inertial actuators, which also includes flywheel control motors, gyro dampers, and passive gyrostabilizers. A distinctive feature of control moment gyroscopes (CMG) is the presence of special drives that control the rotation of the gyroscope relative to its suspension axes. By regulating the speed of this rotation, the drive creates the required control moment. The paper describes the main development stages of Russian CMG and systems based on them, the features of their design and architecture, application issues and development trends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]