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GLEX-2012-12, 2, 2, x12447
ORBIT DESIGN AND TRAJECTORY ANALYSIS FOR UNIVERSITY CUBE-SATELLITE PROJECT FOR
REMOTE SENSING AND FOR EDUCATIONAL APPLICATIONS
Ugur Guven
Individual Collaborator, United States, drguven@live.com
With the advent of the first satellite Sputnik, a new era for mankind has opened. With this new era, the concepts
of satellites have become more important than ever for the amenities of the modern civilization that we enjoy today.
However, there is still a great need for improvement in satellite technology and this can be best achieved by various
Nanosatellite research and deployment programs. Due to its specific nature and its operational dynamics related to its
vast application, a Nanosatellite programme can be very efficiently and effectively implemented under a University's
R&D programme. Until today, many Nanosatellite have been successfully developed, launched and used by various
Universities all across the world and many useful information and experience have come out of these activities. In
this particular paper, a case study analysis of an ideal Nanosatellite research and deployment program for universities
will be shown. This paper can serve as a fundamental case study of a Nanosatellite program and academic and
research organizations can use this as a guideline for their programs. An optimal near polar, low earth orbit is
calculated for this Nanosatellite along with its structural configurations. The orbit is calculated keeping in mind
certain geographical constraints which defines the basic objectives of the mission. Moreover, different attitude
adjustments systems are explored in order to create the most stable configuration in orbit. In addition, possible
payload configurations for this particular case study will be analyzed and the corresponding launch systems along
with its costs will be explored. The main focus will be on creating the most optimal configuration with the minimum
of production and launching costs for the Nanosatellite. Thus, the payload capability as well as the launch
configuration along with the orbit will be calculated accordingly. This paper hopes to demonstrate the technical
aspects as well as the educational aspects of a University Cubesat project
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Co-author 1 University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, India, guru.velidi@live.in
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Co-author 2 University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, India, samaksh.behl@gmail.com
As we can see from Table 1, the different types of frequency reuse. Nevertheless, the communications
satellites based on the wet mass and the cost of characteristics associated with a LEO constellation pose
manufacture; the CubeSat are a type of nanosatellites quite different and demanding problems, such as
which weigh 1kg 0.33 and the cost of production is varying communications path and links, high Doppler
approximately 100,000 USD. shifts and handover from satellite to satellite.
Communication
Satellite communications have become synonymous
with large geostationary satellites for transparent real-
time wideband services. Satellites in LEOs are closer to
the user and the consequent reduction in transmission
loss and delay time are attractive, holding out the Fig. 1: Different types of orbits around the earth.
promise of less expensive ground terminals and regional
@
Co-author 1 University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, India, guru.velidi@live.in
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Co-author 2 University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, India, samaksh.behl@gmail.com
The orbit has been designed as per the decided Fig. 2: The location of ground station where the uplink
altitude which is 705 km. and downlink of data will take place.
Based on Orbit Altitude (705 km) The satellite is designed to cross the location of
Max Angular 3080 km Dehradun, India where the ground station is being built
Altitude and the uplink and downlink of the information will
Maximum 14 minutes take place using Tetra Air Interface protocols.
Visibility Time
Max Angular 3080 km III. ATTITUDE CONTROL SYSTEM
Range The Cube Sat that is being discussed in the paper is
Max Surface 5676 km designed for remote sensing and for educational
Range purposes hence, the attitude of the satellite has to be
Satellite Orbit 7.5 km/sec controlled so that it can uplink and downlink the data
Velocity from the ground station via antennas. There are two
Orbit Revolution 98 minutes systems that are used for attitude control of the satellite.
Time The inertial wheel and the magnetic torque are used
to control the attitude.
Table 2: The Orbital elements of the satellite.
III.I Inertial Wheel
The inertial wheels or the momentum wheels are the
[1] actuator systems which accelerate a body inside the
spacecraft in order to create an equal but opposite force
Where, r = distance between the two bodies. on the spacecraft attitude. The wheels can be operated in
e = eccentricity either reaction wheel mode or as a momentum biased
system. The first one uses the wheel solely for a
reaction torque, the second one uses the wheel as a
[2] gyroscope in order to increment the rigidity of one
particular axis.
Where, v = velocity of satellite in orbit.
III.II Magnetic Torque
They are of two types: (1) the coil or (2) rod
[3] configuration. The magnetic torquers are essentially
induction coils which are used to create a magnetic
Where, T = period of the satellite. field. This induced magnetic field interacting with the
earths magnetic field creates a torque which is then
II.I Trajectory used to change the attitude of the system. This is system
The trajectory of the CubeSat in this paper is has the considerable advantage that it is solid state,
designed and analysed keeping in mind the orbital therefore avoiding the energy losses due to friction. The
distance of the satellite as 705 km and the orbital torque produced however, is proportional to the earths
inclination as 97. magnetic field which means that they are less effective
at higher orbits.
The rod configuration is a configuration that uses
wire wrapped around a long rod of ferromagnetic
material. The ferromagnetic material increases the
efficiency of the coil but greatly increases the weight.
The disadvantage of this method is that it depends on
the cross product between the vector normal of the coil
area and the magnetic field strength vector. This means
that if both vectors are aligned the produced torque is
null. It follows that in every time instant there will be
one direction of the CubeSat, the one parallel to the
magnetic field, where the magnetic torques will not be
able to produce a torque. The solution to this problem is
to introduce a secondary actuator, an inertial wheel,
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Co-author 1 University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, India, guru.velidi@live.in
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Co-author 2 University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, India, samaksh.behl@gmail.com
IV.I Magnetometer
Many studies suggest that when the earthquake is
triggered it induces these extremely low frequencies
into the earths atmosphere and subsequently into
ionosphere. These extremely low frequencies can be
measured using a magnetometer and then the measured
data will be compared with the US geological survey
data for magnetic measurements to find a correlation
between them. The purpose of this payload is to detect
small magnetic measurements. The magnetometer relies
on the AC magnetometer. It is a search coil
magnetometer with multiple frequency bands. It is also
known as the induction magnetometer. The coil is
wounded around a core with high magnetic
permeability. This type of magnetometer was used since
it concentrates on the fluctuations which are to be
recorded for detection of seismic activity. Since it is an
AC magnetometer hence they measure the alternating
magnetic field which is a huge advantage because it can Fig. 5: VGA CCD Camera.
measure changes in the magnetic field many times per
second.
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Co-author 1 University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, India, guru.velidi@live.in
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Co-author 2 University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, India, samaksh.behl@gmail.com
V. GROUND STATION researches. It is also the hope of the authors that this
The ground station is very important since it is used paper will be a guidance platform for newly
to uplink and downlinks the data from the satellite. The implemented nanosatellite projects.
whole idea of putting up a satellite is to record some
data which is useful in advancement of scientific VII. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
experiments. The ground station is developed which
uses the yagi antenna, stepper motor, receiver and data We would like to thank University of Petroleum and
processing unit to record the data from the satellite. The Energy Studies for their unwavering support.
measurements of the magnetometer i.e. the magnetic
fluctuations or the extremely low frequencies will be
received by the ground station.
The flow chart below shows how the ground station VIII. REFERENCES
will work using different components.
[1] Curtis, Howard D., Orbital Mechanics for
Engineering Students, Elsevier Butterworth-
Heinemann, MA, 2005.
VI. CONCLUSION
It is easily seen that the concept of nanosatellites
have made space travel and the use of space equipment
an easy possibility for educational institutions. Now the
power systems of spacecraft and satellites can be
examined and experimented with by using
nanosatellites. Moreover, the relative ease and the
relative affordability of nanosatellites also allow for
important technological breakthroughs as well as for
advancements in the design of space systems. In this
case study for a university nanosatellite, the orbit for
the satellite was designed with certain geometric
constraints. The different payloads for remote sensing
and for different educational purposes were studied. It
was concluded that nanosatellites can be easily
implemented in the universities R&D programme and a
lot of educational research can be done which will
benefit the students and the teachers of the university. It
proves to be an inexpensive solution to many expensive
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Co-author 1 University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, India, guru.velidi@live.in
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Co-author 2 University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, India, samaksh.behl@gmail.com