Attitude Orbital and Tether Control for Foresail-2

A central factor affecting spacecraft lifetime is the radiation environment, which isunpredictable due to an incomplete understanding of plasma dynamics. FORESAIL2 will build on the FORESAIL-1 results – measurements of radiation belt lossesand demonstrate deorbiting in LEO. FORESAIL-2 will demonstrate a feasibility toutilize and characterize a nanosatellite and its instruments for scientific purposes ina high-radiation environ The Foresail 2 mission shall carry a number of instrumentsto characterize the GTO environment. The ADCS shall ensure that: The particletelescope (REPE) works in a scanning mode with the spin axis perpendicular tothe magnetic field vector. The Foresail 2 maintains required spin rate for CoulombDrag experiment (CDE). The CDE measures 0the drag force by measuring thechanges in spin rate while a long charged tether interacts with the ambient plasma.In order to fulfill requirements. Thesis shall model a novel method to deploy aTether, which shall be a primary instrument for measuring and modelling the plasmaenvironment. The thesis shall further select a deployment scheme and analysethe tether dynamics in real-time for the selected orbit, modelling environmentalconditions and studying their effects on tether and on overall dynamic stability ofthe spacecraft bus.