(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2018-04-20)
Li, Jian H.
MicroNimbus is a small satellite mission currently under development at Georgia
Tech Space System Design Lab. Its mission is to measure the vertical temperature
pro le of the atmosphere. To achieve mission success, the satellite needs to control its
attitude in di erent modes throughout the mission, which has motivated a development
of several attitude controllers. These controllers include a B-dot controller for detum ble mode, a Nadir-Pointing controller for science mode, a Slew controller for ground
station down-link mode, a Sun-Pointing controller for battery charging mode, and a
User-De ned Pointing controller for calibration mode. These controllers are designed
based their functionality, and the stability characteristics in the closed-loop system.
This project includes adapting, designing, and implementing the controllers on a NASA
GSFC open source software 42 for a full attitude control simulation. Additionally, the
project report discusses the theory behind each of controllers and how it is implemented
in the simulation tool. These controllers serve as a baseline design for eventual imple mentation as ight controllers on MicroNimbus and other similar CubeSat mission in
the Space System Design Lab.