Design of a 3DoF attitude control for cubesats based on reaction wheels

Abstract

The main purpose of this dissertation is to mechanically design an ADCS system based on Reaction Wheels for a 1U CubeSat. This document contains brief analysis of the current technologies behind attitude control in space. To aid with the mechanical design, an analysis of the components of the ADCS system is carried out, which allows to provide enough knowledge so as to establish design requirements that the reaction wheel shall comply with. The process behind the mechanical design of the reaction wheel and two different ADCS system configuration is included, as well as a description of its assembly and integration into a 1U CubeSat. Finally, with the aim of identifying the capabilities of each configuration, a software is developed. The latter, despite not contemplating disturbances and space manoeuvres, allows to verify if each configuration is capable of controlling the rotation along the three main axis of rotation of the CubeSat.