Attitude and Orbit Control of Small Satellites for Autonomous Terrestrial Target Tracking

• Main Author: Ibrahim, Najmus
• Other Authors: Zee, Robert E.
• Language: en_ca
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: satellite; attitude; attitude and orbit control; microsatellite; control; estimation; tracking; 0538
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/1807/42965

Terrestrial target tracking using low Earth orbit satellites provides essential daily services and vital scientific data. In this thesis, the Attitude and Orbit Control System of such a terrestrial tracking satellite, Nanosatellite for Earth Monitoring and Observation Aerosol Monitor, is presented in detail. The satellite is a new generation Earth observation mission with the objective of detecting global atmospheric aerosol content through sub-degree pointing. The design is presented from initial hardware selection and budget development to operation definition and mission operation. The efficacy of performing precise autonomous Earth-pointing on a small satellite platform is validated through high fidelity simulations involving satellite and environmental dynamics, test-characterized hardware models and flight software-in-the-loop. The results provide practical target tracking methodologies which in the past have been publicly inaccessible to the author's best knowledge and which can be now be applied to a broad range of precise Earth-pointing satellites.