Session
Poster Session 2
Location
Salt Palace Convention Center, Salt Lake City, UT
Abstract
ARICA-2 (AGU Remote Innovative CubeSat Alert System - 2) is a 2U CubeSat designed to demonstrate a real-time alert system for transient astronomical events using commercial satellite networks. Astronomical transient events are difficult to predict when and where they happen and typically have short durations. Therefore, it is important to alert other observational equipments in real time about the occurrence of such events so that observers can perform follow-up observations.ARICA-2 satellite surveys the feasibility of commercial satellite communications, such as Iridium and Globalstar, at various locations in orbit to demonstrate the real-time alert system. We investigated the relationship between the communication success rate and the antenna direction by identifying the orientation in which ARICA-2's antenna surface faces during commercial satellite communication. Based on this study, we concluded that the rotation speed of a satellite needs to be around 1-2 degrees/s to achieve a high success rate of communications for the Iridium satellite network. Therefore, we decided to perform detumbling of the satellite using three-axis magnetorquers to improve the success rate of commercial satellite communications. In addition, we determine the attitude on the ground by downlinking the data obtained from the gyro, magnetic, optical, infrared sensors, and GPS to understand the direction between the ARICA-2’s patch antenna and the commercial satellites.
Document Type
Event
Attitude Determination and Control System Development of ARICA-2
Salt Palace Convention Center, Salt Lake City, UT
ARICA-2 (AGU Remote Innovative CubeSat Alert System - 2) is a 2U CubeSat designed to demonstrate a real-time alert system for transient astronomical events using commercial satellite networks. Astronomical transient events are difficult to predict when and where they happen and typically have short durations. Therefore, it is important to alert other observational equipments in real time about the occurrence of such events so that observers can perform follow-up observations.ARICA-2 satellite surveys the feasibility of commercial satellite communications, such as Iridium and Globalstar, at various locations in orbit to demonstrate the real-time alert system. We investigated the relationship between the communication success rate and the antenna direction by identifying the orientation in which ARICA-2's antenna surface faces during commercial satellite communication. Based on this study, we concluded that the rotation speed of a satellite needs to be around 1-2 degrees/s to achieve a high success rate of communications for the Iridium satellite network. Therefore, we decided to perform detumbling of the satellite using three-axis magnetorquers to improve the success rate of commercial satellite communications. In addition, we determine the attitude on the ground by downlinking the data obtained from the gyro, magnetic, optical, infrared sensors, and GPS to understand the direction between the ARICA-2’s patch antenna and the commercial satellites.
