Speaker
Description
Ground-test facility for CubeSats attitude determination and control: the University of Bologna experience
Department of Industrial Engineering and Interdepartmental Centre for Industrial Research in Aerospace - Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna, Via Fontanelle 40 47121 Forlì (Italy) e-mail: dario.modenini@unibo.it
With the rapid increase in the number of nanosatellites in orbit, there is growing interest in improving the reliability of these miniaturized platforms; the CubeSat standard, in particular, has gained significant popularity. However, some CubeSat missions experience failures or require extended commissioning phases to address issues with their attitude determination and control system (ADCS) in orbit. One potential solution is the establishment of a verification and validation facility that adheres to a ‘test-as-you-fly’ approach.
Since 2017, the u3S Laboratory at the University of Bologna has been working on the development of a facility for end-to-end testing of CubeSat-class attitude determination and control subsystems. At the heart of the facility, designed to test the ADCS of CubeSats ranging from 1U to 3U, is an articulated stand featuring a table-top air-bearing platform. This platform supports the mock-up under test and enables a nearly frictionless rotational motion. The facility is further equipped with several key subsystems, including a Helmholtz cage for simulating the geomagnetic field, a Sun simulator, and a vision system for ground-truth attitude measurement. The testbed, originally conceived for serving both educational and research purposes, has been a useful source of hands-on projects for several undergraduate, graduate, and PhD students. Among its applications, it has been employed in a joint project with the STAR laboratory at the Politecnico di Torino to support the verification of their student’s team CubeSat ADCS.
Thanks to a collaborative effort between the University of Bologna and its spin-off company, NautiluS - Navigation in Space Srl, very recently the facility underwent a major update under ESA funding. This MKII version improves upon its predecessor under several aspects, extending the range of testable CubeSat sizes up to 12U. The first model of the MKII ADCS testbed has just been installed at the AOCS Verification Laboratory in ESTEC.
The presentation will provide an overview of the development of the facility and of its current status, along with a description of some use cases.
