Magnetospheric Nanosat Design

St Jean, Matthew; Cooley, William R.; Brown, Alia R.; Robatzek, Allison L.; Messey, Sydney E.; Mileti, John M.; Klenk, Alexander D.

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Magnetospheric Nanosat Design

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This work presents the design of a 6U nanosat carrying a NASA-designed miniature Ion Neutral Mass Spectrometer (mini-INMS) and the design and construction of a Helmholtz cage. The nanosat is designed to measure particle composition of the ionosphere’s F layer by flying on an elliptical orbit with an initial perigee of 250 km and apogee of 400 km. The nanosat will be deployed in a Sun-synchronous orbit and transfer to a lower orbit using an electrospray thruster for orbit raising and drag compensation to extend the mission lifetime which was analyzed in Systems Tool Kit (STK). A novel spinning motion is utilized to expand the particle collection capability of the mini-INMS. Attitude control was provided by magnetorquers with attitude determination and control schemes developed in MATLAB. Mechanical, thermal, and telecommunications analysis is performed using SolidWorks, ANSYS, COMSOL, and STK. Environmental factors, including magnetic field interference, radiation dosage, and particle impacts are also analyzed and accounted for using STK. Electrical power analysis was performed using STK and MATLAB to create a model of CubeSat power generation, storage and use. The Helmholtz cage, composed of three pairs of orthogonal square coils, was designed to simulate the magnetic environment experienced by the nanosat to provide ground-based testing of the magnetorquer-based ADCS. This cage was designed, manufactured, and tested to verify its accuracy. A controllable power source and data collection methods were also constructed to allow many different magnetic environments to be simulated.

This report represents the work of one or more WPI undergraduate students submitted to the faculty as evidence of completion of a degree requirement. WPI routinely publishes these reports on its website without editorial or peer review.

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