Navigation, Guidance, Control and Dynamics Commons^™

Attitude Determination And Control Of Arksat-1, Jared Gilliam

Mechanical Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

ARKSAT-1 is a nanosatellite developed at the University of Arkansas as part of NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative (CSLI). The goal of ARKSAT-1 is to utilize an LED emitter paired with a ground-based tracking system to perform measurements of the composition of the atmosphere using spectroscopy. As part of its function, it is imperative that the satellite is able to control its orientation so that the emitter is aligned as closely as possible with the ground tracker. To do this, the attitude control system of ARKSAT-1 uses magnetic actuators to create a torque on the satellite by interacting with Earth’s magnetic …