An in-orbit spacecraft is typically required to have a stable attitude due to the function of a variety of disturbing forces in space. For some of the satellites such as reconnaissance satellites, high precision attitude maneuver is also required. Therefore, a drive device for attitude stability and precise maneuver of the spacecraft is an important part of the development of spacecraft.
A reaction wheel with the principle of conservation of moment of momentum is a drive part most commonly used for attitude control, and the existing mature technology is a mechanical ball bearing reaction wheel. Although a new generation of magnetic levitation reaction wheel has overcome some deficiencies of the mechanical ball bearing reaction wheel, there are still some inherent problems of the reaction wheels, such as a larger volume and mass, higher cost, and intercoupling between multi-reaction wheels.
In the 21st century, small satellite technology characterized by lighter weight, smaller size, and lower cost has attracted the attention of the world. In terms of reducing the volume of the satellite, increasing the payload of the satellite, and reducing the cost, the defects of the existing reaction wheel have hindered the miniaturization and low cost of the satellite to a certain extent.
A magnetic levitation reaction sphere may solve the problem of the above reaction wheel. However, the existing magnetic levitation reaction sphere technology mostly is a permanent-magnetic synchronous magnetic levitation reaction sphere with complex manufacturing process and expensive cost, which is not conducive to the miniaturization and low cost and limits its application. Most of the existing inductive magnetic levitation reaction spheres cannot achieve the integration of the levitation and the driving, which is not conducive to the attitude control of the spacecraft; and the levitation thereof is typically achieved by application of attractive levitation, not an inherently stable levitation system, and has complex levitation control.