Controle de bordo para nanossatélites: desenvolvimento e aplicação ao projeto CONASAT

Abstract

Since the launch of Sputnik I in 1957, the satellite industry has experienced great technological advances. Initially, the resources for satellite missions were concentrated on large commercial entities and government organizations. However, by offering a low-cost solution with shorter development time, the CubeSat standard allowed several institutions 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 CONASAT project with the objective of developing a constellation of nanosatellites to the Brazilian Environmental Data Collection System (SBCDA). Currently, it has been developed the CubeSat called CONASAT-0 (first of the constellation), which needs 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.