Mechanical Engineering Commons^™

Energy Analysis And Orbit Simulation Of Actuating Cubesat Solar Arrays, Justin T. Ehren

Honors Theses

CubeSats are used in space research to explore new technologies and detect data to gain a better understanding of various areas of research and subjects affecting human life. CubeSats rely on a solar array to generate energy from the sun and perform their various functions in space. This research studies the energy capturing potential of various solar array configurations and positioning devices for CubeSats. The location and orientation of a CubeSat is simulated with MATLAB for both geo-synchronous and sunsynchronous orbits. Two degree-of-freedom (DoF) positioning devices are sufficient to continuously adjust the photovoltaic array to face towards the sun. Lower …