Given the few unsuccessful space missions in the past few decades, designing a fault-tolerant spacecraft’s attitude control has piqued the scientific and academic community’s attention. In recent years, fault-tolerant control (FTC) emerged as a prominent control strategy to ensure the reliability and safety of modern systems. This paper critically assesses various theoretical and practical design approaches to achieve the desired level of fault-tolerance for the spacecraft’s attitude control. First, a run-through on the conventional FTC methodology for spacecraft’s attitude control is briefly presented, highlighting the shortcomings. Then, the need for an autonomous FTC for present and future space missions is established. More critically, a detailed review of the latest developments in spacecraft’s fault-tolerant attitude control is discussed from two perspectives: controller-basis design techniques and various controller performance characteristics. Finally, several key challenges and open research areas in designing a practical and reliable spacecraft’s fault-tolerant attitude control and the window for future research prospects are discussed.

鉴于过去几十年太空任务的几次失败，设计容错航天器的姿态控制引起了科学界和学术界的关注。近年来，容错控制（FTC）作为一种突出的控制策略应运而生，以确保现代系统的可靠性和安全性。本文批判性地评估了各种理论和实践设计方法，以实现航天器姿态控制所需的容错水平。首先，简要介绍了用于航天器姿态控制的传统 FTC 方法，突出了其不足之处。然后，确定了当前和未来太空任务对自主 FTC 的需求。更关键的是，详细回顾了航天器容错姿态控制的最新进展，从两个角度讨论：基于控制器的设计技术和各种控制器性能特征。最后，讨论了设计实用可靠的航天器容错姿态控制的几个关键挑战和开放的研究领域，以及未来研究前景的窗口。