Cal Poly ACS: Why Are Reaction Wheels Angled at 29.3 Degrees?

[Swankie]

Here is a link to Cal Polys ACS they built. My question is: they claim each reaction wheel is angled at 29.3 degrees. Why would that be? My only guess is that they are each pointed at the CoM.

 

[D H]

Your link is missing.

You certainly don't want three reaction wheels (one per axis). What if one fails? You certainly don't want six (two per axis), either. Too much weight. One way to get redundancy at a minimal cost is to get a bit creative in the layout, arranging the reaction wheels on the edges of the triangular faces of a right square pyramid.