Attitude control and high precision pointing control system of a large balloon borne solar telescope Original Research Article

In this paper, we have discussed the development of a large Control Moment Gyroscope (51 N.M.S. CMG) and use CMG as the driving component to realize precise attitude control of a large balloon borne gondola (total weight 1.5 ton) on which the solar telescope, 80 cm in diameter, is equatorially mounted. On ground test, the pointing accuracy of the gondola of better than 1 arc-minute (R.M.S.) at its plumb line have finally been achieved. In addition, we have established a control model of the large balloon borne telescope pointing control system. By computer simulation and actual test on ground, we have achieved the pointing accuracy of better than 10 arc-seconds (R.M.S.) for the solar telescope.