Since the introduction of the CUBESAT specification by the California Polytechnic State University and Stanford University many others started the development of pico satellites. Currently more than 60 universities and some companies are working on pico satellites worldwide. Earth observation requires precise attitude control capability. But the attitude control performance of such satellites is still very limited. One of the bottlenecks is the lack of suitable components such as reaction wheels or angular rate sensors. The Technical University of Berlin has therefore started to develop such components together with industrial partners. The first component is a reaction wheel, which will be verified in orbit in the frame of the Beesat pico satellite project. The micro wheels have been developed in cooperation with the company Astro- und Feinwerktechnik and was funded by the German Aerospace Center (FKZ 50JR0552). It is suitable for pico satellite applications and will contribute to build a three-axis attitude control system. Beesat will use a configuration of 3 wheels, connected to the wheel electronics board with a CAN bus interface, which is controlled by the on board data handling system. Beesat is a pico satellite in the CUBESAT format. It uses sun sensors and magnetometers as attitude sensors. Besides the wheels, Beesat uses a magnetic coil system to control the attitude. A small camera is used for earth observation purposes. Beesat has an advanced, fully redundant on board computer system based on a 32 bit micro controller.
Beesat - a pico satellite for the in-orbit verification of miniaturised wheels
Beesat - ein Pikosatellit für die Orbit-Verifikation
2007
4 Seiten, 3 Bilder
Aufsatz (Konferenz)
Englisch
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