Advanced and Intelligent Attitude Control for Spacecraft
A special issue of Aerospace (ISSN 2226-4310). This special issue belongs to the section "Astronautics & Space Science".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 September 2026 | Viewed by 143
Special Issue Editor
Interests: attitude control; spacecraft dynamics and control; nonlinear control
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Spacecraft attitude control is a critical enabling technology for modern space missions, supporting precise pointing, maneuverability and operational reliability across Earth observation, telecommunications, navigation, deep-space exploration, formation flying and on-orbit servicing. The rapid evolution of mission requirements, increased autonomy, miniaturization of spacecraft platforms and the emergence of distributed and multi-satellite systems have intensified the demand for advanced attitude control systems.
Recent progress in nonlinear, robust, adaptive and optimal control, model predictive control, fault-tolerant architectures and artificial intelligence–based methods is transforming spacecraft attitude control capabilities under uncertainty and limited onboard resources. At the same time, advances in sensors, actuators, embedded computing and software-defined avionics enable higher levels of autonomy, improved reliability and real-time optimization, even on small satellite platforms. Emerging applications such as rendezvous and proximity operations, on-orbit assembly and large flexible structures impose increasingly stringent requirements on pointing accuracy, disturbance rejection, safety and resilience.
This Special Issue aims to provide a forum for high-quality original research and review papers addressing the modeling, analysis, design, validation and in-flight demonstration of spacecraft attitude control systems. Contributions that combine theoretical developments with experimental or flight validation are particularly encouraged.
Topics of interest include nonlinear and optimal control methods, constrained and predictive control, fault detection and fault-tolerant control and autonomous and AI-enabled control strategies. The Special Issue seeks to advance the state of the art and support the development of robust, autonomous, intelligent and high-performance attitude control solutions for next-generation space missions.
You may choose our Joint Special Issue in Astronautics.
Dr. Fabio Celani
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Aerospace is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- attitude control
- artificial intelligence-driven control
- autonomous spacecraft
- spacecraft dynamics and control
- nonlinear control
- optimal control
- robust control
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