8.1 Definition

This subsystem goes by many different names depending on the desired capabilities of the spacecraft. The most comprehensive definition includes attitude determination, control, and sensing.

• Sensing is measuring cues from the environment using onboard sensors.
• Determination is fixing or finding of the attitude [Merriam-Webster].
• Control is the “process of controlling the orientation of an aerospace vehicle with respect to an inertial frame of reference or another entity such as the celestial sphere, certain fields, and nearby objects, etc.” [Wikipedia].