Method, system and apparatus for spacecraft attitude control error reduction in trajectory interpolation

A vehicle guidance system for implementing attitude control of a vehicle, comprising:

• a command reduction module for generating a reduced data set corresponding to a time-varying attitude command trajectory for a vehicle,
• the command reduction module comprising:
• circuitry configured to receive at least one time-varying attitude command;
• the trajectory defining an attitude of the vehicle;
• and
• circuitry configured to reduce the at least one time-varying attitude command trajectory into a vector of polynomial B-spline coefficients using a Kalman filtering process;
• and
• a command reconstruction module for generating data corresponding to the time varying attitude command trajectory, the command reconstruction module comprising:
• circuitry configured to receive the vector of B-spline polynomial coefficients;
• and
• circuitry configured to reconstruct at least one time-varying attitude command trajectory by utilizing the vector of B-spline polynomial coefficients to perform a polynomial B-spline interpolation operation.

A method for implementing attitude control of a vehicle, comprising:

• receiving at a remote location from the vehicle data corresponding to at least one time-varying attitude command trajectory defining an attitude of the vehicle;
• at the remote location, processing the time-varying attitude command trajectory using a Kalman filter to generate a down sampled attitude command trajectory including a vector of polynomial B-spline coefficients;
• the remote location communicating the down sampled attitude command trajectory to the vehicle;
• and
• the vehicle modifying an attitude of the vehicle based on the down sampled attitude command trajectory and an interpolation filter operatively associated with the vehicle.