CBL - Campus del Baix Llobregat

Projecte llegit

Títol: Guidance, Navigation and control of a very small solar sail

Estudiants que han llegit aquest projecte:

Director/a: GUTIÉRREZ CABELLO, JORDI

Departament: FIS

Títol: Guidance, Navigation and control of a very small solar sail

Data inici oferta: 16-02-2017     Data finalització oferta: 16-10-2017


Estudis d'assignació del projecte:
    Tipus: Individual
     
    Lloc de realització: EETAC
            Institució/Empresa: Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya
     
    Paraules clau:
    solar sails, guidance, navigation, control
     
    Descripció del contingut i pla d'activitats:
    Solar sails are flimsy spacecraft, reacting just to the
    pressure exerted by light. In this work, the student will
    analyse and model the GNC strategy for a solar sail of 10
    square metres, and will design the attitude determination and
    control subsystem of the sail.
    The solar sail will have no movable parts, and so the steering
    control will be made by electrically changing the reflectivity
    of devices located in selected parts of the sail.
    If possible, all systems must have a total mass of less than 20
    grams.
    Special care will be needed to take into account possible
    deformations of the sail.
     
    Overview (resum en anglès):
    With the miniaturization of the electrical components and the advance in aerospace technology, new methods of spatial propulsion have been developed. This thesis project is focused on solar radiation pressure modelling, solar sail kinematics and dynamics and attitude determination and control.
    Solar sailing is based on the same principle as any conventional propulsion system, Newton's third law. However, solar sails gain momentum from Sunlight photons and thus can provide continuous acceleration. The momentum carried by photons is small and for that reason solar sails must have a large area and be extremely light.
    Since conventional actuators are not suitable for attitude control in solar sailing, specific methods based on Reflectivity Control Devices (RCDs) have been discussed.

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