Related papers: MICROSCOPE Satellite and its Drag-Free and Attitud…
Dedicated accelerometers have been developed for the MICROSCOPE mission taking into account the specific range of acceleration to be measured on board the satellite. Considering one micro-g and even less as the full range of the instrument,…
After performing highly sensitive acceleration measurements during two years of drag-free flight around the Earth, MICROSCOPE provided the best constraint on the Weak Equivalence Principle (WEP) to date. Beside being a technological…
The MICROSCOPE space mission aims to test the Equivalence Principle with an accuracy of $10^{-15}$. The drag-free micro-satellite will orbit around the Earth and embark a differential electrostatic accelerometer including two cylindrical…
The Drag-Free and Attitude Control System is a central element of LISA technology, ensuring the very high dynamic stability of spacecraft and test masses required in order to reach the sensitivity that gravitational wave astronomy in space…
A methodology is presented for the differential drag control of a large fleet of propulsion-less satellites deployed in the same orbit. The controller places satellites into a constellation with specified angular offsets and zero-relative…
Since the MICROSCOPE instrument aims to measure accelerations as low as a few 10$^{-15}$\,m\,s$^{-2}$ and cannot operate on ground, it was obvious to have a large time dedicated to its characterization in flight. After its release and first…
We describe a new space gravitational wave observatory design called LAGRANGE that maintains all important LISA science at about half the cost and with reduced technical risk. It consists of three drag-free spacecraft in the most stable…
Small-satellites and CubeSats offer a low-cost pathway to access Low Earth Orbit at altitudes of 450 km and lower thanks to miniaturization and advancement in reliability of commercial electronics. However, at these low altitudes,…
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…
Testing the Weak Equivalence Principle (WEP) to a precision of $10^{-15}$ requires a quantity of data that give enough confidence on the final result: ideally, the longer the measurement the better the rejection of thestatistical noise. The…
This paper describes the development of a magnetic attitude control subsystem for a 2U cubesat. Due to the presence of gravity gradient torques, the satellite dynamics are open-loop unstable near the desired pointing configuration.…
The MICROSCOPE mission aims to test the Weak Equivalence Principle (WEP) in orbit with an unprecedented precision of 10$^{-15}$ on the E\"otv\"os parameter thanks to electrostatic accelerometers on board a drag-free micro-satellite. The…
The laser-ranged satellite LARES is expected to provide new refined measurements of relativistic physics, as well as significant contributions to space geodesy and geophysics. The very low area-to-mass ratio of this passive and dense…
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.…
Modular Aerial Robot Systems (MARS) comprise multiple drone units with reconfigurable connected formations, providing high adaptability to diverse mission scenarios, fault conditions, and payload capacities. However, existing control…
Self-consistent simulations of the dynamical evolution of a low-mass satellite galaxy without dark matter are reported. The orbits have eccentricities 0.46 <= e <= 0.96 in a Galactic dark halo resembling our Milky Way. For the simulations,…
Hardware and software architecture of a novel spacecraft Attitude Determination and Control System (ADCS) based on smartphones using Variable Speed Control Moment Gyroscope (VSCMG) as actuator is proposed here. A spacecraft ground simulator…
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…
According to the Weak Equivalence Principle, all bodies should fall at the same rate in a gravitational field. The MICROSCOPE satellite, launched in April 2016, aims to test its validity at the $10^{-15}$ precision level, by measuring the…
We study the optimal control of an arbitrarily large constellation of small satellites operating in low Earth orbit. Simulating the lack of on-board propulsion, we limit our actuation to the use of differential drag maneuvers to make…