Research on the influence of the motion parameters of the satellite optical communication terminal's gimbals on antenna pointing error

The coupled motion between the gimbals of the optical terminal and satellite platform is the key factor to influence the antenna pointing control process of the satellite optical communication (SOC) terminal. In this paper, based on the satellite attitude dynamics, we studied the antenna pointing error induced by the coupled motions under different parameters of the gimbals motion. The analysis results indicated the antenna pointing error change regularly with increase of the rotation angle of the gimbals, and reach the max value when the azimuth angle and elevation angle are (π, 0) and (-π, 0) separately. With increase of the rotation time, the pointing error increase slowly. The amplification of the pointing error is only 1% with the rotation time change from 10 s to 1000 s. The results of this paper are the basis of the antenna pointing error compensation research and will improve the stability of the SOC system applied on the satellite platform.