Bechini, M.

Bertacin, R.

Colagrossi, A.

Fiore, F.

Lavagna, M.

Lunghi, P.

Pasquale, A.

Piccinin, M.

Prinetto, J.

Quirino, M.

Silvestrini, S.

Zanotti, G.

English

Archivio istituzionale della ricerca - Politecnico di Milano

72nd International Astronautical Congress 202128th IAA SYMPOSIUM ON SMALL SATELLITE MISSIONS (B4)Constellations and Distributed Systems (7)Author: Prof. Michèle LavagnaPolitecnico di Milano, Italy, michelle.lavagna@polimi.itDr. Fabrizio FioreINAF - Istituto Nazionale di AstroFisica, Italy, fabrizio.fiore@inaf.itDr. Paolo LunghiPolitecnico di Milano, Italy, paolo.lunghi@polimi.itDr. Andrea ColagrossiPolitecnico di Milano, Italy, andrea.colagrossi@polimi.itDr. Roberto BertacinAgenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI), Italy, roberto.bertacin@asi.itMr. Jacopo PrinettoPolitecnico di Milano, Italy, jacopo.prineto@mail.polimi.itDr. Stefano SilvestriniPolitecnico di Milano, Italy, stefano.silvestrini@polimi.itMs. Margherita PiccininPolitecnico di Milano, Italy, margherita.piccinin@polimi.itMr. Giovanni ZanottiPolitecnico di Milano, Italy, giovanni.zanotti@polimi.itMr. Matteo QuirinoPolitecnico di Milano, Italy, matteo.quirino@polimi.itMr. Andrea PasqualePolitecnico di Milano, Italy, andrea.pasquale@polimi.itMr. Michele BechiniPolitecnico di Milano, Italy, michele.bechini@polimi.itHERMES CONSTELLATION: A NEW PARADIGM FOR MULTI-MESSENGER ASTROPHYSICSWITH CUBESATSAbstractNowadays the distributed and fractionated systems, very promising to cope with challenging spaceapplications, are eventually moving from their conceptual studies on papers to real implementation forflight, thanks to an increase in TRL for miniaturized components in many crucial technological areasof miniaturized component. HERMES scientific constellation, currently in its phase D, falls in thosemissions’ category: the project – financed by the Ministry of Italian Research and by an EC H2020 project- aims of implementing the multi-messenger astrophysics paradigm and detecting the electromagneticcounterparts of Gravitational Waves, thanks to miniaturized innovative X-ray detectors distributed onsix 3U satellites to fly in formation. The tight scientific requirements imposed to the mission made theHERMES service module and mission operations design and implementation quite challenging: sciencemode is always active along each orbit, and the payloads shall continuously point towards the samesky region in bunch of three to allows precisely localising the random astrophysics events wherever andwhenever they might occur; each space asset, in case of cosmic burst occurrence, shall immediately1Paper ID: 67060oraltransmit data to ground; the fleet shall orbit low in altitude to reduce the scientific payload sensitivityto environmental spurious radiations; a minimum baseline between the spacecraft in a triplet shall berespected to ensure the required level of angular accuracy in the event localisation; last the payloadbenefits from tight thermal control and its daily data volume is expected to be in the order of 1Gb. Tosolve each of those challenging requirements, HERMES fleet, not allowed to mount a propulsion in a 3Ureduced internal volume, will fly on a low equatorial orbit, exploiting the geopotential effects to ensuretriplets of continuously changing satellites experiencing the correct baseline; a set of oversized reactionwheels, supported by magnetotorquers perform the implemented complex pointing control strategy alongthe mission which keeps at least three payload line of sights aligned for localisation and oriented tomaximise the sky visibility; three different communication channels are available on board for fast andheavy data transfer functionalities accomplishment: S and UHF bands, supported by the iridium channelfor continuous and fast scientific data link. The on board software is design so that needed missionrobustness is ensured. The most performant COTS on market have been selected and are currently undertheir AIV/AIT process. The paper will discusses the current testing and implementation activities instrong correlation with the overall mission goals.2

HERMES Constellation: a New Paradigm for Multi-Messenger Astrophysics with CubeSats

https://re.public.polimi.it/bitstream/11311/1229866/1/LAVAM01-22.pdf

HERMES Constellation: a New Paradigm for Multi-Messenger Astrophysics with CubeSats

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Archivio istituzionale della ricerca - Politecnico di Milano