Development of a Pico-satellite “STARS” in Kagawa

Paper number

IAC-07-B4.2.01

Author

Prof. Masahiro Nohmi, Kagawa University, Japan

Year

2007

Abstract

Space Tethered Autonomous Robotic Satellite (STARS) project has carried since January 2005 under the leadership of Kagawa University. The main objective of STARS project is technical verification for Tethered Space Robot, which is connected to a mother spacecraft through a tether. Major consequence of the multi-body nature of the system is that its attitude can be controlled under tether tension by its own link motion.
“STARS” consists of Mother Satellite and Daughter Satellite connected by tether. The mother satellite deploys tether having the daughter satellite at its end. The daughter satellite has one arm, and tether is attached at its end. Then attitude control by arm link motion using tether tension is possible. For the purpose of the main mission: (1) Mother Satellite deploys tether having Daughter Satellite at its end; (2) Daughter Satellite controls attitude; (3) Mother Satellite and Daughter Satellite communicate through Bluetooth. The daughter satellite takes a picture of the mother satellite, and it is transmitted to ground stations through amateur radio frequency. It will be much interested to take a picture of satellite in space.
STARS project is organized under management section by subsystems as electrical power subsystem, data handling subsystem, telecommunication subsystem, camera subsystem, structure subsystem, attitude control subsystem, deployment subsystem, robotic subsystem, and ground station. Deployment subsystem and robotic subsystem are specific in STARS project. Main objective of deployment subsystem mounted on the mother satellite is to deploy and retrieve the daughter satellite. On the other hand, main objective of robotic subsystem mounted on the daughter satellite is to control attitude of the daughter satellite during deployment.

Abstract document

IAC-07-B4.2.01.pdf

Manuscript document

IAC-07-B4.2.01.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).

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