Design and Implementation of a Space Environment Simulation Toolbox for Small Satellites
- Paper number
IAC-05-E2.3.06
- Author
Mr. Rouzbeh Amini, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands
- Coauthor
Mr. Jesper Abilgaard Larsen, Aalborg University, Denmark
- Coauthor
Dr. Roozbeh Izadi-Zamanabadi, Aalborg University, Denmark
- Coauthor
Mr. Dan Danji Virji Bhanderi, Aalborg University, Denmark
- Year
2005
- Abstract
The development and design of different subsystems of a spacecraft such as attitude determination system (ADS) and attitude control system (ACS) need the availability of space environment model, in order to test and verify different designs. Usually designs and tests of the subsystems are accomplished with expensive laboratory setups which limit the possibility of changing the approach without increasing the costs. Thus having a computer based environment to test the design before the experimental level in space enviroment laboratories increases the design success rate.
By using the MATLAB-SIMULINK(R) facilities, a library containing models for the various disturbances and phenomena in low earth orbit (LEO) was developed as a part of a bigger project on design and development of the second Cubesat at Aalborg University. The toolbox provides a simulation environment for designing and testing the different subsystems such as ADS and ACS.
There are necessary accurate models for the space environment including orbit propagators, disturbances and eclipse which are essential to consider in selecting the design approach strategies on the basis of the design criteria. Therefore the toolbox contains the following models
- Orbit propagation blocks, including Keplerian and SGP4 models
- Earth magnetic field block, which uses the IGRF model with configurable precision
- Configurable disturbances blocks, including solar radiation, atmoshperic drag, gravity gradiant and magnetic residual which are configurable due to the necessary precision, orbit and the physical characteristics of the satellite.
The toolbox covers different necessary environmental models for attitude determination and control design, such as using any combination of sun sensors, magnetometers and gyros as sensors and different actuators such as magnetorquer and momentum wheels. It is notable that the parameters of each block in the toolbox is configurable according to a specific orbit. This property empowers the designer to change the simulation environement easily. Another essential feature of the toolbox is the interfacing flexibility of the blocks to other subsystems which means that the designer can test ADS and ACS separately or integrated.
This paper describes the structures and the facilities of the built blocks, as well as an example of the structure of a complete system in the case of the AAUSAT-II Cubesat. Some of the simulation results are compared with the experimental data which are gathered from the Ørsted satellite. The correctness of the developed models fully confirms that this is a strong tool for the design of small LEO satellites.
The toolbox is designed based on the space environment models which are mostly studied in [1] and [2].
[1] J. R. Wertz, Spacecraft Attitude Determination and Control, J. R. Wertz, Ed. Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1978
[2] J. R. Wertz and W. J. Larson, Space mission analysis and design, 3rd ed., J. R. Wertz, Ed. Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1999
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-05-E2.3.06.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).
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