Other
Scientific paper
Sep 2011
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011amos.confe..28h&link_type=abstract
Proceedings of the Advanced Maui Optical and Space Surveillance Technologies Conference, held in Wailea, Maui, Hawaii, September
Other
Scientific paper
As the SSA system upgrades its existing capabilities and adds new ones, the potential offered by inexpensive CubeSat-based systems is growing more attractive. The potential benefits of using CubeSats increase if they are operated in groups to form ‘virtual’ satellites, which have the same functionality of a much larger satellite, but at a fraction of the cost. This paper will investigate the feasibility of using differential aerodynamic forces to control a formation of CubeSats in order to form a virtual satellite. Unfortunately, due to third body gravitational forces, solar radiation pressure, and other perturbing forces, the satellites will drift apart if no control mechanism is employed to maintain the formation. However, providing for a control mechanism is difficult. Using a rocket engine is expensive, increases mission risk, and requires fuel to be carried in the rather limited volume available in a typical CubeSat. However, passive techniques that take advantage of the differential aerodynamic forces experienced by two spacecraft can be used to exert a modest amount of control over the formation. Techniques for doing this have been discussed in the literature. These techniques rely on a simple drag plate, and only allow modest control of the formation in the plane defined by the spacecrafts orbit. An alternative is to treat the drag plate as an aerodynamic control surface, much as is done with an aircraft. This technique allows the control surface to be oriented in a fully 3 dimensional fashion, allowing a greater range of control of the satellite formation. A challenge in treating the drag plate as a 3 dimensional control surface is that the equations of motion describing the relative motions of the satellites become fully coupled with their relative orientations. Thus, controlling the satellite formation by adjusting the relative orientations of the different satellites will require solving a fully coupled set of differential equations and devising a control law based on these equations.
This paper will derive the relative motion of a closely spaced formation of CubeSats, incorporating the aerodynamic drag and lift effects due to their relative orientations. A control law will be developed that allows the relative positions of the satellites to be controlled by adjusting the orientations of the satellites. A simulation of a group of 2 CubeSats in LEO will be performed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the method.
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