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Full-Text Articles in Mechanical Engineering
Low-Cost Reaction Wheel Design For Cubesat Applications, Nicholas J. Bonafede Jr.
Low-Cost Reaction Wheel Design For Cubesat Applications, Nicholas J. Bonafede Jr.
Master's Theses
As science instruments on CubeSats become more sensitive to the attitude of the spacecraft, better methods must be employed to provide the accuracy needed to complete the planned mission. While systems that provide the accuracy required are available commercially, these solutions are not cost-effective, do not allow the design to be tailored to a specific mission, and most importantly, do not give students hand-on experience with attitude control actuators. This thesis documents the design, modeling, and simulation of a low-cost, student-fabricated, reaction wheel system for use in 3U CubeSat satellites. The entire design process for the development of this reaction …
Control Of A Spacecraft Using Mixed Momentum Exchange Devices, Blake J. Currie
Control Of A Spacecraft Using Mixed Momentum Exchange Devices, Blake J. Currie
Master's Theses
Hardware configurations, a control law, and a steering law are developed for a mixed hardware spacecraft that uses both control moment gyros and reaction wheels. Replacing one or more gyros in a spacecraft with a reaction wheel has potential for cost savings while still achieving much greater performance than using reaction wheels alone. Several simulated tests are run to compare the performance to a traditional all reaction wheel or all control moment gyro spacecraft, including analysis of failure modes and singular configurations. The mixed system performed similarly to all gyro systems, responding within 6% of the gyro system’s time for …