Controls Algorithm For A Satellite Using Earth\u27s Magnetic Field: Orbit Maneuvers And Attitude Positioning

This document describes the design, analysis of Orbit Maneuvers and Attitude Control for NanoSat class satellites, which uses an electro-magnetic force controller which was proposed by the Florida Space Institute (FSI). Orbit Maneuvering and the Attitude Control System (ACS) play a very important role for the success of this mission, as that can allow making the satellite go to the desired orbit as well do the sun pointing of the solar arrays with su¢ cient accuracy to achieve desired power levels. The primary mission would be to attain attitude stabilization using the torque from the coils. This is also used for pointing at the direction of the sun, for achieving desired power levels. The secondary mission would be to use the force of the magnetic field and utilize that for orbit maneuvering, and attain the desired trajectory. This thesis gives a presentation of this detailed analysis with a simulation using Matlab/Simulink. Mathematical model of the actuators and sensors used for this satellite are designed, so that the simulation gives us results very near to the actual ones.Health Monitoring is also one of the main issues addressed in this work. This simulation helps us in understanding the mission as well as the requirements very well, and helps us know all the shortcomings. The FUNSAT satellite is modeled as an example in Simulink together with a Kalman filter for attitude estimation based on all sensor measurements. The theory behind this, and extending the Kalman filter, is also presented

Analysis of a rotating advanced-technology space station for the year 2025

An analysis is made of several aspects of an advanced-technology rotating space station configuration generated under a previous study. The analysis includes examination of several modifications of the configuration, interface with proposed launch systems, effects of low-gravity environment on human subjects, and the space station assembly sequence. Consideration was given also to some aspects of space station rotational dynamics, surface charging, and the possible application of tethers

Models of microstructure and magnetic properties for magnetic recording media

Three computational models have been developed to simulate magnetic properties of granular media, particulate media microstructures and self-assembled systems. The granular media model uses an energy minimisation approach to describe the magnetic properties of a system of randomly oriented single-domain particles taking into account dipolar and exchange interactions as well as thermal effects. At low temperature dipolar interactions produce flux closure vortex structures leading to a decrease of both remanence and coercivity. When thermal effects become important, dipolar interactions lead to an increase of the local energy barriers increasing both remanence and coercivity as compared to the superparamagnetic case. Exchange coupling tends to align the magnetic moments producing an increase in the remanence of such systems while cooperative reversals decrease their coercivity. The particulate media model uses a spherocylindrical approximation for the elongated magnetic particles that are used in tapes. The particles are allowed to move in a viscous solvent under the action of steric and magnetic interactions and of the orienting field. A percentage of the particles are grouped in clusters that behave as rigid bodies during the simulation. The results obtained suggest that the presence of the clusters leads to a disruption in the alignment of the free particles regardless of the cluster size. A third model uses a Monte-Carlo approach to describe the self-assembly process that occurs in surfactant coated magnetic particles. As the solvent dries the particles form assemblies to minimize the interaction energy. In order to obtain long-range self-assembled systems the particle areal density must be in a narrow range and the particle size distribution must have a standard deviation below 5%. The occurrence of local self-assembly is due to the presence of an attraction term in the interparticle interaction potential. The conditions under which square vs. hexagonal lattice can be obtained are discussed

STEP: Satellite Test of the Equivalence Principle. Report on the phase A study

During Phase A, the STEP Study Team identified three types of experiments that can be accommodated on the STEP satellite within the mission constraints and whose performance is orders of magnitude better than any present or planned future experiment of the same kind on the ground. The scientific objectives of the STEP mission are to: test the Equivalence Principle to one part in 10(exp 17), six orders of magnitude better than has been achieved on the ground; search for a new interaction between quantum-mechanical spin and ordinary matter with a sensitivity of the mass-spin coupling constant g(sub p)g(sub s) = 6 x 10(exp -34) at a range of 1 mm, which represents a seven order-of-magnitude improvement over comparable ground-based measurements; and determine the constant of gravity G with a precision of one part in 10(exp 6) and to test the validity of the inverse square law with the same precision, both two orders of magnitude better than has been achieved on the ground

Change blindness: eradication of gestalt strategies

Arrays of eight, texture-defined rectangles were used as stimuli in a one-shot change blindness (CB) task where there was a 50% chance that one rectangle would change orientation between two successive presentations separated by an interval. CB was eliminated by cueing the target rectangle in the first stimulus, reduced by cueing in the interval and unaffected by cueing in the second presentation. This supports the idea that a representation was formed that persisted through the interval before being 'overwritten' by the second presentation (Landman et al, 2003 Vision Research 43149–164]. Another possibility is that participants used some kind of grouping or Gestalt strategy. To test this we changed the spatial position of the rectangles in the second presentation by shifting them along imaginary spokes (by ±1 degree) emanating from the central fixation point. There was no significant difference seen in performance between this and the standard task [F(1,4)=2.565, p=0.185]. This may suggest two things: (i) Gestalt grouping is not used as a strategy in these tasks, and (ii) it gives further weight to the argument that objects may be stored and retrieved from a pre-attentional store during this task

Cells in Space

Discussions and presentations addressed three aspects of cell research in space: the suitability of the cell as a subject in microgravity experiments, the requirements for generic flight hardware to support cell research, and the potential for collaboration between academia, industry, and government to develop these studies in space. Synopses are given for the presentations and follow-on discussions at the conference and papers are presented from which the presentations were based. An Executive Summary outlines the recommendations and conclusions generated at the conference

Advanced Strategies for Robot Manipulators

Amongst the robotic systems, robot manipulators have proven themselves to be of increasing importance and are widely adopted to substitute for human in repetitive and/or hazardous tasks. Modern manipulators are designed complicatedly and need to do more precise, crucial and critical tasks. So, the simple traditional control methods cannot be efficient, and advanced control strategies with considering special constraints are needed to establish. In spite of the fact that groundbreaking researches have been carried out in this realm until now, there are still many novel aspects which have to be explored

Development of a sensitive superconducting gravity gradiometer for geological and navigational applications

A sensitive and stable gravity gradiometer would provide high resolution gravity measurements from space. The instrument could also provide precision tests of fundamental laws of physics and be applied to inertial guidance systems of the future. This report describes research on the superconducting gravity gradiometer program at the University of Maryland from July 1980 to July 1985. The report describes the theoretical and experimental work on a prototype superconducting gravity gradiometer. The design of an advanced three-axis superconducting gravity gradiometer is also discussed