Research Summaries

Back Prototype Flight Unit of an Agile Nanosatellite Attitude Control System: Development, Testing, and Integration with an Experimental Nanosatellite.

Fiscal Year 2009
Division Graduate School of Engineering & Applied Science
Department Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering
Investigator(s) Romano, Marcello
Sponsor Air Force Research Laboratory (Air Force)
Summary A prototype flight unit of a novel nanosat attitude control system based on Control Moment Gyroscopes will be developed as part of this proposal. The preliminary design of this system has already been developed by Dr. Romano and his team. This new attitude control system will be first tested in the lab by using a new three axis simulator test-rig; then, flight testing will be conducted on-board the nanosat mission SCAT++, which is under development at NPS and will be launched on-board of the Space Shuttle at the end of 2010. The proposed attitude control system consists of four miniaturized single gimbal Control Moment Gyroscopes. The system is entirely contained in the volume of less than 1 liter and has a total mass of less than 1 kilogram. Each CMG consist of a flywheel, actuated by a brush less DC motor. The flywheel is encased in a gimbal structure. A second brushless DC motor with integrated harmonic drive gear allows the gimbal and flywheel to rotate about an axis normal to the rotation axis of the flywheel. Slip rings are used for electrical connection of the flywheel DC motor. The gimbal motor case is rigidly connected to the spacecraft. A non-contact magnetic encoder is used to accurately measure the angular position of the gimbal with respect to the spacecraft.
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Publications Publications, theses (not shown) and data repositories will be added to the portal record when information is available in FAIRS and brought back to the portal
Data Publications, theses (not shown) and data repositories will be added to the portal record when information is available in FAIRS and brought back to the portal