GUIDANCE, NAVIGATION, AND CONTROL SYSTEM FOR MANEUVERABLE PICO-SATELLITES A COMPACT, LOW-POWER GN&C SYSTEM…

Public award description

GUIDANCE, NAVIGATION, AND CONTROL SYSTEM FOR MANEUVERABLE PICO-SATELLITES A COMPACT, LOW-POWER GN&C SYSTEM IS ESSENTIAL TO THE SUCCESS OF PICO-SATELLITE AUTOMATED RENDEZVOUS AND DOCKING (AR&D). AUSTIN SATELLITE DESIGN (ASD) PROPOSES TO DELIVER A WORKING DESIGN OF AN INTEGRATED SIX-DEGREE-OF-FREEDOM (DOF) GUIDANCE, NAVIGATION, AND CONTROL (GN&C) SYSTEM FOR PICO-SATELLITES AT THE CONCLUSION OF PHASE 1 OF THIS STTR. A SIX DOF TRANSLATION AND ROTATION DETERMINATION AND CONTROL SYSTEM WILL BE DESIGNED FOR A PICO-SATELLITE FORM-FACTOR TO GENERATE THE ONBOARD GUIDANCE AND CONTROL NECESSARY TO DEMONSTRATE AUTONOMOUS CONTROL STABILITY AND PERFORM SIMPLE PROXIMITY MANEUVERS. AN EXISTING NASA/JSC GPS RECEIVER WILL BE UTILIZED FOR NAVIGATION. ADDED SENSORS, SUCH AS A MAGNETOMETER, WILL BE COMBINED WITH GPS SIGNALS FOR ATTITUDE DETERMINATION. A THRUSTER ACTUATOR CONCEPT WILL BE IDENTIFIED AND A DESIGN PRODUCED THAT SATISFIES ANTICIPATED OPERATIONAL REQUIREMENTS AND THAT FITS WITHIN THE MASS AND POWER CONSTRAINTS OF THE PICO-SATELLITE MISSION. FLIGHT HARDWARE WILL NOT BE PROCURED UNTIL PHASE 2; HOWEVER, COMPONENT CHARACTERISTICS WILL BE DOCUMENTED AND MODELED DURING PHASE 1 AND GN&C ALGORITHMS WILL BE WRITTEN TO INCLUDE THEM. SOFTWARE THAT CAN BE DEPLOYED TO EMBEDDED SYSTEMS WILL BE WRITTEN AND VALIDATED IN SIMULATION. AT THE CONCLUSION OF PHASE 1, SIMULATED GN&C WILL BE DEMONSTRATED WITHIN A PICO-SATELLITE FORM FACTOR USING EMBEDDED SOFTWARE SUCH THAT A TECHNOLOGY READINESS LEVEL (TRL) OF 3 OR 4 IS ACHIEVED.