Attitude determination and control system test facility

Aquarius

Air-bearing microsatellite simulator

• Static 3DoF platform (Pitch, Roll, Yaw) using hemispherical air-bearing
• Full AOCS simulator incorporating Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) Control Moment Gyros (CMGs), and secondary inclinometer
• Supports both prolate and oblate spacecraft configurations
• Manual balancing using mass blocks to compensate for gravity disturbance torque
• Automatic balancing based on feedback control of counter masses
• Vision-based Enhanced Attitude Determination using detection and tracking of onboard infrared LED fiducials.

Orion

Air-bearing nanosatellite simulator

• Static 3DoF platform (Pitch, Roll, Yaw) using hemispherical air-bearing
• Accommodation for flight representative spacecraft systems, including CubeSat form factor
• Capable of automatic balancing based on feedback control of translation masses
• Test bed developed to study effects of deployable structures and innovative attitude control systems embedded within these structures.

Intrepid

Air-bearing CMG demonstrator platform

• Static 3DoF platform (Pitch, Roll, Yaw) using hemispherical air-bearing
• Quadratic platform (100x100cm) allowing +/- 10º in Roll and Pitch with automatic balancing with trimming masses
• Full satellite Hardware in Loop (HiL) platform, capable of communicating over Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, with full representative satellite hardware
• Attitude control incorporate four CMG with feedback control using a high precision IMU
• Compatible with dSPACE and Matlab with bespoke toolboxes for rapid HiL development
• Pointing accuracy less than 0.1° with rates better than 0.01°/s
• System currently under development.