Related papers: Radiometric Actuators for Spacecraft Attitude Cont…

Attitude control of spacecraft during an impulsive orbital maneuver is a vital task. Many spacecraft and launchers use the gimbaled thrust vector control (TVC) in their attitude control system during an orbital maneuver. Mathematical…

Recent advances in miniaturization and commercial availability of critical satellite subsystems and detector technology have made small satellites (SmallSats, including CubeSats) an attractive, low-cost potential solution for space weather…

A key factor in the economic efficiency of satellites is their availability in orbit. Replacing standardized building blocks, such as empty fuel tanks or outdated electronic modules, could greatly extend the satellites' lifetime. This,…

Cubesats and similarly scaled nano-satellites present significant opportunities for hosting both scientific and commercial payloads for Earth sensing and astronomical observations, in particular in the area of rapid-response observations to…

CubeSats are miniature satellites used to carry experimental payloads into orbit, where it is often critical to precisely control their attitude. One way to do this is through the use of magnetorquers, which can be integrated into PCBs.…

The Hyperspectral Thermal Imager (HyTI) is a technology demonstration mission that will obtain high spatial, spectral, and temporal resolution long-wave infrared images of Earth's surface from a 6U cubesat. HyTI science requires that the…

This paper focuses on the spacecraft attitude control problem with intermittent actuator activation, taking into account the attitude rotation rate limitation and input saturation issue simultaneously. To address this problem, we first…

To increase the awareness and impact, soft robotics needs to go beyond the lab environment and should be readily accessible to those even with no robotic expertise. However, most prevailing manufacturing methodologies require either…

This paper presents a mission concept that enables Earth-Mars communications resistant to periods of solar conjunction by using CubeSat satellites equipped with a solar sail. The dynamics of the satellite is modeled separately in the…

CubeSat satellites are small cube-shaped space platforms that are very popular among academic, research and start-up communities mostly due to their reduced mission costs and short development time. This comes with an easy access to space,…

This paper details the implementation of a two stage underactuated control law for a CubeSat to reduce all angular rates to zero. This CubeSat has a diagonal inertia matrix where the principal axes of inertia are not equal. This is needed…

Attitude estimation or determination is a fundamental task for satellites to remain effectively operational. This task is furthermore complicated on small satellites by the limited space and computational power available on-board. This,…

With the growing deployment of small satellites (such as CubeSats, Nanosats, Picosats, and Femtosats) in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) for targeted applications like imaging, communication, data storage, and rendezvous-docking mission, there is…

Recently, a practical and publicly accessible satellite standard called the SmallSat has amplified public involvement in orbital research. This allows for flexible and efficient deployments of impactful low-earth-orbit experiments that…

This paper employs Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) method to a Nonlinear Model Predictive Control (NMPC) for satellite attitude control and detumbling. Magnetic torquers have been used as actuators for the stabilization and attitude control of…

Ultra-precise astrometry from the Gaia mission is expected to lead to astrometric detections of more than 20,000 exoplanets in our Galaxy. One of the factors that could hamper such detections is the astrometric jitter caused by the magnetic…

This paper presents a novel approach for robust periodic attitude control of satellites. Respecting the periodicity of the satellite dynamics in the synthesis allows to achieve constant performance and robustness requirements over the…

The precise insertion of CubeSats into designated orbits is a complex task, primarily due to the limited propulsion capabilities and constrained fuel reserves onboard, which severely restrict the scope for large orbital corrections. This…

Air-bearing platforms for simulating the rotational dynamics of satellites require highly precise ground truth systems. Unfortunately, commercial motion capture systems used for this scope are complex and expensive. This paper shows a novel…

The Miniature X-ray Solar Spectrometer (MinXSS) is a 3-Unit (3U) CubeSat developed at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at the University of Colorado, Boulder (CU). Over 40 students contributed to the project with…