Document Type

Article

Journal/Book Title/Conference

37th Annual AAS Guidance and Control Conference, Breckenridge, CO

Publication Date

2-15-2014

Abstract

Funded by the NSF CubeSat and NASA ELaN a programs, the DICE mission consists of two 1.5U CubeSats which were launched into an eccentric low Earth orbit on October 281 h, 20 II. Each identical spacecraft carries a suite of ionospheric space weather payloads. The use of two identical CubeSats, at slightly different orbiting velocities in nearly identical orbits, permits the deconvolution of spatial and temporal ambiguities in the observations of the ionosphere from a moving platform. Deployable wire booms require each CubeSat to be spin stabilized. Attitude determination and control are accomplished using magnetometers, a sun sensor, and torque coils. Position and time are provided by GPS. DICE has greatly advanced nano-satellite based mission capabilities, demonstrating constellation science and opening up a number of groundbreaking technologies to the CubeSat community. DICE has made many co-incident observations of ionospheric structure and is the first CubeSat mission to observe field-aligned currents in the ionosphere. In this paper we will review the on-orbit performance ofthe DICE ADCS design as well as communications/GPS antenna issues associated with a spinning CubeSat.

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