Related papers: MICROSCOPE Satellite and its Drag-Free and Attitud…
Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites are essential for providing accurate navigation and timing information worldwide. Operating in medium Earth orbit (MEO), these satellites must maintain precise Earth-pointing attitudes to transmit…
The Attitude Determination and Control System is one of the critical boards of any satellite, specially the micro-satellites. The ADCS is the bridge linking sensors data to actuators by several computationally complex algorithms such as…
Micro- and nanosatellites have become popular platforms for a variety of commercial and scientific applications, but today are considered suitable mainly for short and low-priority space missions due to their low reliability. In part, this…
For a rigid model satellite, Chandrasekhar's dynamical friction formula describes the orbital evolution quite accurately, when the Coulomb logarithm is chosen appropriately. However, it is not known if the orbital evolution of a real…
Space robotics applications, such as Active Space Debris Removal (ASDR), require representative testing before launch. A commonly used approach to emulate the microgravity environment in space is air-bearing based platforms on flat-floors,…
Collision avoidance is a topic of growing importance for any satellite orbiting Earth. Especially those satellites without thrusting capabilities face the problem of not being able to perform impulsive collision avoidance manoeuvres. For…
Atmospheric drag calculation error greatly reduce the low-earth orbit spacecraft trajectory prediction fidelity. To solve the issue, the "correction - prediction" strategy is usually employed. In the method, one parameter is fixed and other…
We discuss two geosynchronous gravitational wave mission concepts, which we generically name gLISA. One relies on the science instrument hosting program onboard geostationary commercial satellites, while the other takes advantage of recent…
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 general objective of this Ph.D. thesis is to study the dynamics and control of rigid and flexible spacecraft supported by a high-fidelity numerical simulation environment. The demand for greater attitude pointing precision, attitude…
TianQin is a dedicated geocentric mission for space-based gravitational wave (GW) detection. Among its core technologies, the drag-free and pointing control subsystem (DFPCS) - consisting of suspension, drag-free and pointing controls -…
Space debris has become a critical issue, with debris in orbit surpassing active satellites, posing significant risks to space sustainability. Payloads or rocket bodies discarded post-mission in LEO without orbital control are major…
This paper discusses the design and the performance achievable with active aerodynamic attitude control in very low Earth orbit, i.e. below 450 km in altitude. A novel real-time algorithm is proposed for selecting the angles of deflection…
The Daedalus 2 mission aboard REXUS 29 is a technology demonstrator for an alternative descent mechanism for very high altitude drops based on auto-rotation. It consists of two probes that are ejected from a sounding rocket at an altitude…
The science operations of the LISA Pathfinder mission has demonstrated the feasibility of sub-femto-g free-fall of macroscopic test masses necessary to build a LISA-like gravitational wave observatory in space. While the main focus of…
Aerodynamic collision avoidance manoeuvres provide an opportunity for satellites in Low Earth Orbits to reduce the risk during close encounters. With rising numbers of satellites and objects in orbit, satellites experience close encounters…
The DragonCam Microscopic Camera is an instrument being developed for NASA's Dragonfly mission [1] to Saturn's moon Titan. The Microscopic Camera will be body-fixed to the Dragonfly vehicle and will image the surface at a distance of about…
Present and future space missions rely on systems of increasingly demanding performance for being successful. Drag-free technology is one of the technologies that is fundamental for LISA-Pathfinder, an ESA mission whose launch is planned…
Aerial insects can effortlessly navigate dense vegetation, whereas similarly sized aerial robots typically depend on offboard sensors and computation to maintain stable flight. This disparity restricts insect-scale robots to operation…
Hokkaido University and Tohoku University have been developing and operating a constellation of 50-cm-class microsatellites for Earth observation. DIWATA-1, launched in 2016, was deployed into a circular orbit at an altitude of…