ATTITUDE CONTROL SYSTEMS FOR SCIENTIFIC BALLOON PAYLOADS

In this paper we describe two stabilization systems developed for balloon borne payloads in X-ray astronomy experiments. One of them was employed in a 19 hours transmediterranean flight during summer 1978. The gondola, with a two stages pointing system was at lift-off about 300 kilos; the pointing requirement was 0.5 degrees precision. The control loop and the dynamical stability of the system are described and the in-flight performance is discussed.