Related papers: Radiometric Actuators for Spacecraft Attitude Cont…
In Coulomb drag propulsion, a long high voltage tether or system of tethers gathers momentum from a natural plasma stream such as solar wind or ionospheric plasma ram flow. A positively polarised tether in the solar wind can be used for…
In this work we present the optimization-based design and control of a fully-actuated omnidirectional hexarotor. The tilt angles of the propellers are designed by maximizing the control wrench applied by the propellers. This maximizes (a)…
Aerocapture leverages atmospheric drag to convert a spacecraft's hyperbolic trajectory into a bound orbit. For some aerocapture missions, heating due to the radiation of high temperature gases in the shock-layer can be much larger than the…
Bimetallic composite nanotweezers based on Ti2NiCu alloy with shape memory effect (SME) have recently demonstrated the ability to manipulate real nano-objects, such as nanotubes, and bionanoparticles when heated to 40-60 C by laser…
This paper presents a comprehensive analysis of the contact force profile of a single-cell bidirectional soft pneumatic actuator, specifically designed to aid in the abduction and adduction of the shoulder for pediatric exosuits. The…
The Lunar Gateway is expected to be positioned on-orbit around the Moon or in a Halo orbit at the L2 Lagrange point. The proposed Lunar Gateway is a game-changer for enabling new, high-priority lunar science utilizing Cu-beSats and presents…
We propose a new position control strategy for VTOL-UAVs using IMU and GPS measurements. Since there is no sensor that measures the attitude, our approach does not rely on the knowledge (or reconstruction) of the system orientation as…
Smartphones equipped with sensors such as accelerometers, gyroscopes, and magnetometers offer valuable opportunities for physics education, allowing students to measure motion using their own devices. However, commonly used applications…
Astrometric monitoring of stars provides a promising method for discovery of low-mass planets around nearby Sun-like stars. The astronomical community has proposed several telescopes designed to perform high-precision astrometric…
Instruments flown on CubeSats are small. Meaningful applications of CubeSats in astronomical observations rely on the choice of a particular subject that is feasible for CubeSats. Here we report the result of a feasibility study for…
Astrometric jitter noise arises when starspots on a rotating stellar surface move in and out of view, shifting the photocenter. This noise may limit our ability to detect and weigh small, sub-Neptune-sized planets around active stars. By…
Radio tracking of interplanetary probes is an important tool for navigation purposes as well as for testing the laws of physics or exploring planetary environments. The addition of an accelerometer on board a spacecraft provides orbit…
This paper proposes the design of a single linear parameter-varying (LPV) controller for the attitude control of CubeSats using electro spray thrusters. CubeSat attitude control based on electro spray thrusters faces two main challenges.…
The second Miniature X-ray Solar Spectrometer (MinXSS-2) CubeSat, which begins its flight in late 2018, builds on the success of MinXSS-1, which flew from 2016-05-16 to 2017-05-06. The science instrument is more advanced -- now capable of…
This study evaluates a technique for determining the mass of a potentially hazardous asteroid from a high-speed flyby in the context of a rapid reconnaissance planetary defense scenario. We consider a host spacecraft that dispenses a small…
The use of cubesat swarms is being proposed for different missions where cooperation between satellites is required. Commonly, the cube swarm requires formation flight and even rendezvous and docking, which are very challenging tasks since…
This paper addresses the problem of estimating air velocity and full attitude for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) in GNSS-denied environments using minimal onboard sensing-an interesting and practically relevant challenge for UAV…
Jitter degrades a spacecraft's fine-pointing ability required for optical communication, earth observation, and space domain awareness. Development of jitter estimation and compensation algorithms requires high-fidelity sensor observations…
In this paper, a practical approach to the trajectory design for asteroid exploration missions with CubeSats is presented. When applied trajectories are sought, operative concerns and uncertainties affecting the spacecraft dynamics must be…
This paper addresses the computation of Delta-V-optimal, safe, relative orbit reconfigurations for satellite formations in a centralized fashion. The formations under consideration comprise an uncontrolled chief spacecraft flying with an…