Attitude determination and control for centrifugal tether deployment on the ESTCube-1 nanosatellite

Proceedings of the Estonian Academy of Sciences

Robert Valner¹  Kaupo Voormansik¹  Riho Vendt¹  Urmas Kvell¹  Jaan Viru¹  Jaanus Kalde¹  Viljo Allik¹  Erik Kulu¹  Tõnis Eenmäe¹  Andris Slavinskis¹  Kaspars Laizans¹  Jouni Envall¹  Indrek Sünter¹  Markus Järve¹  Henri Kuuste¹  Tõnis Uiboupin¹  Tobias Scheffler¹  Mart Noorma¹  Hendrik Ehrpais¹  Ilmar Ansko¹  Erik Ilbis¹  Silver Lätt¹  Endel Soolo¹ 

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关键词: attitude determination;    attitude control;    subsystem design;    electric solar wind sail;    Sun sensor;    nanosatellite;    CubeSat;    ESTCube-1;   

DOI  :  10.3176/proc.2014.2S.05

学科分类：化学（综合）

来源: Teaduste Akadeemia Kirjastus

【 摘 要 】

This paper presents the design, development, and pre-launch characterization of the ESTCube-1 Attitude Determination and Control System (ADCS). The design driver for the ADCS has been the mission requirement to spin up the satellite to 360 deg Ã— s–1 with controlled orientation of the spin axis and to acquire the angular velocity and the attitude during the scientific experiment. ESTCube-1 is a one-unit CubeSat launched on 7 May 2013, 2:06 UTC on board the Vega VV02 rocket. Its primary mission is to measure the Coulomb drag force exerted by a natural plasma stream on a charged tether and, therefore, to perform the basic proof of concept measurement and technology demonstration of electric solar wind sail technology. The attitude determination system uses three-axis magnetometers, three-axis gyroscopic sensors, and two-axis Sun sensors, a Sun sensor on each side of the satellite. While commercial off-the-shelf components are used for magnetometers and gyroscopic sensors, Sun sensors are custombuilt based on analogue one-dimensional position sensitive detectors. The attitude of the satellite is estimated on board using an Unscented Kalman Filter. An ARM 32-bit processor is used for ADCS calculations. Three electromagnetic coils are used for attitude control. The system is characterized through tests and simulations. Results include mass and power budgets, estimated uncertainties as well as attitude determination and control performance. The system fulfils all mission requirements.

【 授权许可】

Unknown