Review and feasibility of active attitude control and detumbling for the UoMBSat-1 PocketQube pico-satellite

© 2017 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.The CubeSat form factor was very successful at reducing development and launch costs for spacecraft. The PocketQube (PQ) - one eighth the size of a CubeSat aims to further reduce these costs. However, the question remains on whether it is feasible to implement a fully-featured satellite within the far tighter constraints imposed by a PQ. This paper explores the implications of including a 3-axis attitude determination and control system with provisions for desaturation and detumbling within the confines of a PQ. The hardware technology available is outlined and the applicable control laws and techniques are reviewed. This paper presents the approach that is actually being adopted in the development of the UoMBSat-1 picosatellite at the University of Malta.The research work disclosed in this publication is funded by the ENDEAVOUR Scholarship Scheme (Malta). The scholarship is part-financed by the European Union – European Social Fund (ESF) under Operational Programme II – Cohesion Policy 2014-2020, “Investing in human capital to create more opportunities and promote the well-being of society".peer-reviewe