Processing the data of measurements of angular velocity and microaccelerations onboard the <Emphasis Type="Italic">Foton-12</Emphasis> satellite

The results of reconstruction of uncontrolled rotational motion of the Foton-12 satellite using the measurement data of onboard sensors are presented. This problem has already been solved successfully several years ago. The satellite motion was reconstructed using the data of measuring the Earth’s magnetic field. The data of measuring the angular velocity and microaccelerations by the QSAM system were actually not used for this purpose, since these data include a clearly seen additional component whose origin was at that time unclear. This component prevented one from using these data directly for reconstruction of the angular motion. Later it became clear that the additional component was caused by the Earth’s magnetic field. Discovery of this fact allowed us to make necessary corrections when processing the QSAM system data and to use them for reconstruction of rotational motion of Foton-12. Below, a modified method of processing the QSAM system data is described together with the results of its application. The main result is obtained by comparing the motion reconstructed from measurements of angular velocity or acceleration with that found by way of processing the measurements of the Earth’s magnetic field. Their coincidence turned out to be rather accurate.