Design and Implementation of a Multi-Mission Torque Model Simulator for Earth Satellites

Abstract

Satellites in Earth’s orbits are exposed to a variety of environmental disturbances that affect their attitude over time. Accurate analyses and simulations of the effect of each perturbation on the dynamics of a satellite constitute a very important process in the design of active and passive attitude controllers. The accuracy of the analysis depends on several factors including the geometrical model of the satellite and any assumptions and approximations in the description of the environmental torques. Multiple commercial mission analysis tools exist that simulate the attitude of the satellite over time. However, the cost of such tools might not be justifiable for small satellite projects developed in schools and universities. On the other hand, open-source torque simulator tools are often limited in scope and capability. Therefore, this project aims to provide a Satellite Torque Simulator tool (STS), an open-source, freeware tool capable of simulating the effect of all relevant disturbances on the attitude of any satellite geometry. A discretized model for the satellite geometry and mass distribution is adopted. This ensures higher accuracy than rigid-body models. The tool provides a variety of outputs including the evolution of the Euler angles and the angular rates of the satellite over time due to the space environment disturbance torques and attitude control torque. In this way, STS tool is filling a gap that many engineers face in satellite mission analysis and attitude control design. The user-friendly platform of the STS tool will help engineers to save a lot of time while doing such kind of analysis. Therefore, STS tool will be very useful in any satellite mission design process.

Date of Award	Dec 2022
Original language	American English
Supervisor	Elena Fantino (Supervisor)