Related papers: Precise Pointing of Cubesat Telescopes: Comparison…
As part of the Bristol PROVE mission, a nano satellite in low Earth orbit will be required to track a ground based target during a 400 second flyover. This requires agile attitude control that will be achieved using a system of flywheels.…
This paper focuses on the attitude pointing control problem under pointing-forbidden constraints and performance constraints. The spacecraft is expected to align its sensor's boresight to a desired direction, while the terminal control…
Attitude sensors determine the spacecraft attitude through the sensing of an astronomical object, field or other phenomena. The Sun and fixed stars are the two primary astronomical sensing objects. Attitude sensors are critical components…
The wide availability of Commercial Off-The-Shelf (COTS) electronics that can withstand Low Earth Orbit conditions has opened avenue for wide deployment of CubeSats and small-satellites. CubeSats thanks to their low developmental and launch…
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…
CubeSats are small satellites built in standard sizes and form factors, which have been growing in popularity but have thus far been largely ignored within the field of astronomy. When deployed as space-based telescopes, they enable science…
As satellites become smaller, the ability to maintain stable pointing decreases as external forces acting on the satellite come into play. At the same time, reaction wheels used in the attitude determination and control system (ADCS)…
The design of a CubeSat telescope for academic research purposes must balance complicated optical and structural designs with cost to maximize performance in extreme environments. Increasing the CubeSat size (eg. 6U to 12U) will increase…
This paper introduces a novel attitude controller for spacecraft subject to actuator saturation and multiple exclusion cone constraints. The proposed solution relies on a two-layer approach where the first layer prestabilizes the system…
Exploration of asteroids and small-bodies can provide valuable insight into the origins of the solar system, into the origins of Earth and the origins of the building blocks of life. However, the low-gravity and unknown surface conditions…
The miniaturization of electronics, sensors and actuators has enabled the growing use of CubeSats and sub-20 kg spacecraft. Their reduced mass and volume has the potential to translate into significant reductions in required propellant and…
The Miniature X-ray Solar Spectrometer (MinXSS) CubeSat is the first solar science oriented CubeSat mission flown for the NASA Science Mission Directorate, with the main objective of measuring the solar soft X-ray (SXR) flux and a science…
This paper introduces an algorithm to perform optimal reorientation of a spacecraft during a high speed flyby mission that maximizes the time a certain target is kept within the field of view of scientific instruments. The method directly…
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.…
An attitude determination system for balloon-borne experiments is presented. The system provides pointing information in azimuth and elevation for instruments flying on stratospheric balloons over Antarctica. In-flight attitude is given by…
The Star-Planet Activity Research CubeSat (SPARCS) is a 6U CubeSat under development to monitor the flaring and chromospheric activity of M dwarfs at near-ultraviolet (NUV) and far-ultraviolet (FUV) wavelengths. The spacecraft hosts two…
When the first CubeSats were launched nearly two decades ago, few people believed that the miniature satellites would likely prove to be a useful scientific tool. Skeptics abounded. However, the last decade has seen the highly successful…
CubeSats have the potential to expand astrophysical discovery space, complementing ground-based electromagnetic and gravitational-wave observatories. The CubeSat design specifications help streamline delivery of instrument payloads to…
Balloon-borne telescopes present unique thermal design challenges which are a combination of those present for both space and ground telescopes. At altitudes of 35-40 km, convection effects are minimal and difficult to characterize.…
The integration of CubeSats with Free Space Optical (FSO) links accelerates a major advancement in high-throughput, low-Earth orbit communication systems. However, CubeSats face challenges such as size, weight, and power (SWaP) limitations,…