TERMIUM Plus®

The Government of Canada’s terminology and linguistic data bank.

ATTITUDE DETERMINATION [11 records]

Filter results by subject field Alphabetical list of terms

Filter results by subject field

Alphabetical list of terms

Record 1 2017-03-16

English

Subject field(s)
  • Spacecraft
  • Launching and Space Maneuvering
DEF

The regulation of the attitude of [a] spacecraft ...

CONT

The attitude of a spacecraft is defined as the direction the spacecraft is pointing with respect to some inertial reference frame. The control of this attitude is a complex but essential task that all spacecraft must somehow perform in order to orient instrumentations, antennas, solar panels, and more. Attitude control is divided into two primary tasks :(1) the determination or measurement of the attitude and(2) the ability to control the direction the spacecraft is pointing.

OBS

attitude control; ACTL: term and abbreviation officially approved by the RADARSAT-2 Terminology Approval Group (RTAG).

French

Domaine(s)
  • Engins spatiaux
  • Lancement et manœuvres dans l'espace
DEF

Action d’imposer l’orientation voulue à un engin spatial.

OBS

ACTL : acronyme spécifique à Radarsat.

OBS

commande d'orientation : terme et définition publiés au Journal officiel de la République française le 25 juillet 2015.

OBS

commande d'attitude; ACTL : terme et abréviation uniformisés par le Groupe de travail de la terminologie de RADARSAT-2 (GTTR).

Spanish

Campo(s) temático(s)
  • Naves espaciales
  • Lanzamiento y maniobras en el espacio
Save record 1

Record 2 2015-03-03

English

Subject field(s)
  • Organization Planning
  • Philosophy (General)
CONT

It is an attitude, a way of life. Planning requires a dedication to acting on the basis of contemplation of the future, a determination to plan constantly and systematically as an integral part of management.

French

Domaine(s)
  • Planification d'organisation
  • Philosophie (Généralités)
DEF

Attitude fondamentale par laquelle l'esprit se tourne vers l'avenir dans le dessein arrêté d'en tirer une orientation systématique et rationnelle de l'entreprise.

Spanish

Save record 2

Record 3 2010-03-02

English

Subject field(s)
  • Planets
  • Launching and Space Maneuvering
CONT

A sun tracker provides for a spacecraft attitude determination relative to the sunward direction

CONT

While the solar wind compresses the Earth’s dipole on the sunward side, it also causes the Earth’s magnetic field to be stretched out several hundred RE [1 RE is 6,372 kilometers, or one Earth radius] in the anti-sunward direction, thereby forming the geomagnetic tail.

OBS

As opposed to "anti-sunward direction" (q.v.).

French

Domaine(s)
  • Planètes
  • Lancement et manœuvres dans l'espace
CONT

(comète) Le type III : il s'agit de queues anormales ou des anti-queues qui apparaissent parfois dans la direction du Soleil.

CONT

rétrograde : Se dit du mouvement apparent des planètes, lorsqu'il a lieu vers l'ouest, en sens inverse du Soleil.

OBS

Par opposition à «direction anti-solaire», «en sens inverse du soleil», «dans la direction opposée au soleil».

Spanish

Save record 3

Record 4 2007-03-17

English

Subject field(s)
  • Spacecraft
  • Space Exploration Equipment and Tools
DEF

A middle structure used to support spacecraft platform equipments.

CONT

... the instrument deck of the IMAGE observatory is located in the middle of the spacecraft. Below the deck are four bays that contain subsystems for electrical power, communications, command & date handlings, and attitude determination and control.... The instrument deck includes a suite of three Neutral Atom Imaging instruments used to record the glow of fast atoms coming from throughout the Earth's magnetic field.

French

Domaine(s)
  • Engins spatiaux
  • Équipement et outillage d'exploration spatiale
DEF

Structure intermédiaire servant à fixer des équipements sur la plateforme d'un véhicule spatial.

OBS

porte-équipement : terme uniformisé par le Comité d'uniformisation de la terminologie spatiale (CUTS).

Spanish

Save record 4

Record 5 2007-02-05

English

Subject field(s)
  • Spacecraft
  • Applications of Electronics
  • Aircraft Piloting and Navigation
DEF

A radiometer or other sensor that is used to align or control the axis of a spacecraft, missile, or satellite with the apparent horizon of the Earth or of any other astronomical body.

CONT

Horizon sensors [are] the primary means for directly determining the attitude of a spacecraft relative to the Earth... The attitude of spacecraft relative to Earth is one of the most important aspects of attitude determination and control, particularly for communications(TDRSS), weather(GOES), Earth resources(LANDSAT), satellites, etc. Earth cannot be treated as a point source like the Sun, especially for near Earth satellites for which Earth covers about 40% of the sky. Therefore, merely detecting the Earth is by no means sufficient for attitude determination, even for the most crude attitude determination requirements. Hence most sensors are designed to detect the Earth's horizon. Horizon sensors are infrared devices that detect the contrast of the cold of space and the warmth of the Earth(or other body).

CONT

Typically there are four basic components in a horizon sensor: a scanning mechanism, optical system, radiance detector, and signal processing electronics.

OBS

horizon sensor: term officially approved by the RADARSAT-2 Terminology Approval Group (RTAG).

Key term(s)
  • infra red horizon sensor

French

Domaine(s)
  • Engins spatiaux
  • Applications de l'électronique
  • Pilotage et navigation aérienne
DEF

Scanneur mécanique à détecteurs électro-optiques montés de façon à repérer l'horizon terrestre.

CONT

Garde-cap. Il s'agit d'un gyroscope que l'on maintient horizontal et qui définit une direction fixe dans le plan horizontal à sa dérive près. Le gyroscope est monté à la Cardan comme dans le cas du compas mais il n'est pas balourdé. Un détecteur d'horizon monté sur la caisse de tore délivre un signal proportionnel à l'inclinaison du moment cinétique; ce signal est traité et est envoyé dans un moteur couple d'axe ce qui crée un couple vertical ramenant le moment cinétique horizontal.

CONT

[...] un système de contrôle d'attitude et d'orbite qui comprend : [...] un capteur optique 2-axes qui peut détecter soit la Terre (typiquement capteur d'horizon Infra-Rouge) soit l'Étoile Polaire (typiquement capteur à matrice CCD).

OBS

capteur d'horizon : terme uniformisé par le Groupe de travail de la terminologie de RADARSAT-2 (GTTR).

Spanish

Save record 5

Record 6 2007-01-31

English

Subject field(s)
  • Spacecraft
  • Launching and Space Maneuvering
CONT

The Attitude Determination and Control System(ADCS) deals with the satellite attitude in space. The satellite attitude varies depending on the configuration, and it is determined and controlled by mission fulfillment.

CONT

Attitude Determination and Control System. RADARSAT-2 is a 3-axis stabilised, zero-momentum satellite. Various sensors and actuators determine and maintain the spacecraft's orientation, and ensure that the spacecraft meets its performance requirements for precisely pointing the SAR Antenna in either left-or right-looking mode and for controlling the transition between these two modes.

OBS

attitude determination and control system; ADCS : term and abbreviation officially approved by the RADARSAT-2 Terminology Approval Group(RTAG).

French

Domaine(s)
  • Engins spatiaux
  • Lancement et manœuvres dans l'espace
DEF

Système servant au maintien d'attitude du satellite.

OBS

système de détermination et de commande d'attitude; ADCS : terme et abréviation uniformisés par le Groupe de travail de la terminologie de RADARSAT-2 (GTTR).

Spanish

Campo(s) temático(s)
  • Naves espaciales
  • Lanzamiento y maniobras en el espacio
Save record 6

Record 7 2003-06-23

English

Subject field(s)
  • Spacecraft
  • Launching and Space Maneuvering
CONT

Attitude determination using Earth Sensors and Gyros data.

French

Domaine(s)
  • Engins spatiaux
  • Lancement et manœuvres dans l'espace

Spanish

Save record 7

Record 8 2003-06-23

English

Subject field(s)
  • Spacecraft
  • Launching and Space Maneuvering
CONT

The attitude system CSC performs telemetry processing, attitude determination, attitude prediction and etc.

French

Domaine(s)
  • Engins spatiaux
  • Lancement et manœuvres dans l'espace

Spanish

Save record 8

Record 9 2003-02-24

English

Subject field(s)
  • Launching and Space Maneuvering
CONT

For missions requiring full three-axis attitude control, the SSTL [Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd. ] Microsatellite can be equipped with a zero-bias reaction-wheel attitude control system fed by a single SSTL Astrolabe star camera for attitude determination. This system can attain pointing accuracy of 1 arc-minute in all axes. It can be designed for astronomical pointing, Sun pointing, or Earth pointing with slewing and target tracking.

Key term(s)
  • three axis control

French

Domaine(s)
  • Lancement et manœuvres dans l'espace

Spanish

Save record 9

Record 10 2002-07-25

English

Subject field(s)
  • Titles of Conventions, Treaties and Agreements (Documents)
  • Spacecraft
OBS

The satellite Attitude Determination and Control Subsystem(ADCS) is used to maintain proper satellite attitude and satellite pointing states. The subsystem also provides real-time information on attitude and orbit.

French

Domaine(s)
  • Titres de conventions, de traités et d'accords (Documents)
  • Engins spatiaux

Spanish

Save record 10

Record 11 2001-09-11

English

Subject field(s)
  • Aircraft Piloting and Navigation
  • Navigation Instruments
  • Launching and Space Maneuvering
CONT

The on-orbit Attitude Determination and Control Subsystem(ADACS) provides three axis pointing control for the satellite. The ADACS maintains system pointing by controlling torque in three mutually orthogonal wheels. The torque is determined by analysis of spacecraft orientation in space. Input to these computations are acquired from the Earth Sensor Assembly(ESA) for pitch and roll, and an inertial reference with sun sensor updates for yaw.

French

Domaine(s)
  • Pilotage et navigation aérienne
  • Instruments de navigation
  • Lancement et manœuvres dans l'espace
CONT

Ce chapitre concerne l'étude fine d'un gyroscope [...], monté à 3 degrés de liberté [...] grâce à 2 armatures de Cardan. L'appareil est «le passager» d'une plate-forme stabilisée [...], d'orientation fixe dans un repère inertiel. I Description du montage : 1°) La plate-forme : [...] est un solide [...], emporté dans un véhicule (avion, sous marin, lanceur etc...), et conservant une orientation fixe par rapport à un repère inertiel. Ce qui ne veut pas dire que [la plate-forme stabilisée] est en translation uniforme, simplement en translation quelconque, avec accélération et vitesse.

CONT

Équipement de navigation. Ce type d'équipement guide l'aéronef vers son lieu de destination et intègre de nombreux produits tels que les systèmes de positionnement mondial [(...] GPS), la centrale anémobarométrique, qui calcule la vitesse aérodynamique, l'altitude et la vitesse verticale de l'appareil, les IRS («Inertial Reference System» - systèmes de référence inertielle) - qui sont les principaux capteurs de mouvement et de navigation de la cellule utilisés par un nombre très élevé de systèmes avioniques [...]

Spanish

Save record 11

Copyright notice for the TERMIUM Plus® data bank

© Public Services and Procurement Canada, 2025
TERMIUM Plus®, the Government of Canada's terminology and linguistic data bank
A product of the Translation Bureau

Display options

Change the order of display of the official languages of Canada
Option to display the non-official languages (Spanish or Portuguese)
Display definitions, contexts, etc., on records

Features

Language Portal of Canada

Access a collection of Canadian resources on all aspects of English and French, including quizzes.

Writing tools

The Language Portal’s writing tools have a new look! Easy to consult, they give you access to a wealth of information that will help you write better in English and French.

Glossaries and vocabularies

Access Translation Bureau glossaries and vocabularies.

Date Modified: