Gradient-based multidisciplinary optimization is applied to a small satellite design problem. A novel MDO framework is developed by adopting a non-conventional definition of components which yields two key benefits for solving multidisciplinary analysis and optimization problems. The first is a unified solver which generalizes many existing methods for solving nonlinear and linear systems, and ...

This paper is concerned with on-board real-time position and rate prediction of the spacecraft centre-of-mass as input data to local orbital frame (LORF) determination for Low-Earth Orbit drag-free satellites. Study and simulation results are justified by Drag-Free and Attitude Control of the GOCE satellite (Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer), the LORF being the instanta...

In this paper, we propose a nonlinear adaptive position and attitude tracking controller for satellite proximity operations. This controller requires no information about the mass and inertia matrix of the satellite, and takes into account the gravitational force, the gravitygradient torque, the perturbing force due to Earth’s oblateness, and other constant – but otherwise unknown – disturbance...

In this work we present the achievements of the approach we have conceived to estimate in real time the attitude of a satellite endowed with an integral camera looking to the Earth. We have implemented the dynamical model that describes how to reconstruct the spatial orientation of the camera using couples of subsequent views, passing through six reference frames. An in-depth analysis of the in...

Recently small satellite missions have gained considerable interest due to low-cost launch opportunities and technological improvement of micro-electronics. Required pointing accuracy of small, inexpensive satellites is often relatively loose, within a couple of degrees. Application of cheap, lightweight, and power efficient actuators is therefore crucial and viable. This paper discusses linear...

This monograph reports on the development of the attitude determination backbone of the Ionospheric Observation Nanosatellite Formation (ION-F). Three spacecraft with similarly modest pointing constraints comprise the ION-F constellation. Pointing requirements for the constellation are dictated by the formation flying mission objective and communication demands. To satisfy pointing requirements...

Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites are used for public networking and for scientific purposes. Communication via satellite begins when the satellite is positioned in its orbital position. Ground stations can communicate with LEO satellites only when the satellite is in their visibility region. The duration of the visibility and the communication vary for each LEO satellite pass over the station, ...

A new global navigation satellite system (GNSS) carrier-phase attitude model and its solution are introduced in this contribution. This affine-constrained GNSS attitude model has the advantage that it avoids the computational complexity of the orthonormality-constrained GNSS attitude model, while it still has a significantly improved ambiguity resolution performance over its unconstrained count...

Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS)-based attitude determination is a viable alternative for traditional methods such as gyroscopes. Precise attitude determination using multiple GNSS antennas mounted on a remote sensing platform relies on successful resolution of the integer carrier phase ambiguities. The Multivariate Constrained (MC-) LAMBDA method has been developed for the multivaria...