Related papers: Developing and implementing a CubeSat's equations …
Accurate and stable spacecraft pointing is a requirement of many astronomical observations. Pointing particularly challenges nanosatellites because of an unfavorable surface area to mass ratio and proportionally large volume required for…
CubeSats are emerging as low-cost tools to perform astronomy, exoplanet searches and earth observation. These satellites can target an object for science observation for weeks on end. This is typically not possible on larger missions where…
This paper presents a nonsingular fast terminal sliding mode-based adaptive smooth control methodology for a distributed space telescope demonstration mission. The distributed space telescope has a flexible focal length that corresponds to…
High-altitude balloon experiments are becoming very popular among universities and research institutes as they can be used for testing instruments eventually intended for space, and for simple astronomical observations of Solar System…
Sloshing Platform for In-Orbit Controller Experimentation is an ambitious, student run mission to design and fly a cubesat to study fluid sloshing in spacecraft. The project will examine zero-g propellant sloshing from an experimental…
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 control task of tracking a reference pointing direction (the attitude about the pointing direction is irrelevant) while obtaining a desired angular velocity (PDAV) around the pointing direction using geometric techniques is addressed…
We consider the problem of attitude tracking for small-scale aerobatic helicopters. A small scale helicopter has two subsystems: the fuselage, modeled as a rigid body; and the rotor, modeled as a first order system. Due to the coupling…
This paper addresses the modeling and attitude control of jumping quadrupeds in low-gravity environments. First, a convex decomposition procedure is presented to generate high-accuracy and low-cost collision geometries for quadrupeds…
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…
In order to address the need for an affordable reduced gravity test platform, this work focuses on the analysis and implementation of atmospheric acceleration tracking with an autonomous aerial vehicle. As proof of concept, the vehicle is…
A novel concept called Air-Breathing Electric Propulsion proposes to fly satellites at altitudes in the range 180-250 km, since this would have some advantages for the performance of radio communication and Earth observation equipment. The…
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…
Within the missile guidance and control system the autopilot must overcome an array of variables and uncertainties to maintain tracking trajectory. A large uncertainty explored in this paper is the difference between the assumed flight…
Aims. The knowledge of the orbits and origins derived from meteors is important for the study of meteoroids and of the early solar system. With an increase in nano-satellite projects dedicated to Earth observations or directly to meteor…
This paper presents a design for a drop tower test to evaluate a numerical model for a structurally reconfigurable spacecraft with actuatable joints, referred to as a transformable spacecraft. A mock-up robot for a 3U-sized transformable…
Existing vision-and-language navigation models often deviate from the correct trajectory when executing instructions. However, these models lack effective error correction capability, hindering their recovery from errors. To address this…
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…
The attitude stabilization of a micro-satellite employing a variable-amplitude cold gas thruster which reflects as a time varying gain on the control input is considered. Existing literature uses a persistence filter based approach that…
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…