On-Board Control for Nanosatellites: Development and Application to the CONASAT Project
On-board control, INPE/CRN, Cubesat, On-board computer, OBC, CONASAT.
Since the launch of Sputnik I in 1957, the satellite industry has experienced great te- chnological advances. Initially, the resources for satellite missions were concentrated on large commercial entities and government organizations. However, by offering a low-cost solution with a shorter development time, the CubeSat standard allowed several institu- tions and organizations to be able to develop missions with nanosatellites. In Brazil, the Northeast Regional Center (CRN) of the National Institute of Space Research (INPE) has developed, along with the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN), the CO- NASAT project with the objective of developing a constellation of nanossatellites to the Brazilian Environmental Data Collection System (SBCDA). Currently, it has been deve- loped the CubeSat called CONASAT-0 (first of the constellation), for which is necessary the implementation of an on-board control system capable of meeting requirements of the CONASAT project. In this context, this work presents the first version of the on-board control system for CONASAT-0. Moreover, in this dissertation are presented the tests performed with the developed system and the results obtained. Finally, propositions for future works are presented.