In-Flight control simulation of a proposed, future microsatellite for the African Resource Management Constellation (ARMC)

Maongera, Brendon

In-Flight control simulation of a proposed, future microsatellite for the African Resource Management Constellation (ARMC)

Thesis / Dissertation

2024

Publisher

University of Cape Town

Department

Department of Electrical Engineering

Faculty

Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment

Abstract

The African Resource Management Constellation (ARMC) is a group of satellites that provide vegetation monitoring over the African continent. It is operated by the following four countries: Kenya, South Africa, Nigeria and Algeria. The constellation allows the four partner countries to learn to control and build their own satellite systems. The University of Cape Town has been sponsored by a European consortium of academic and industry partners and has received a satellite testbench. The satellite testbench is a fully functional digital twin of the “Flying Laptop” satellite. The simulation testbench is commanded via the commercial mission control software and includes a detailed simulation of the satellite and all subsystems. The University of Cape Town testbench can be the realistic nucleus of an ARMC mission. Starting from this setup a satellite model with improved remote sensing technologies can be defined for South Africa as well as for the ARMC with vegetation monitoring. The constellation should operate at altitudes where there is high atmospheric drag, which will reduce the lifetime use of the satellites. An electric propulsion system can be used to restore the satellite to the desired altitude when commanded. The current study aimed to perform a flight simulation of one of the constellation satellites that demonstrated vegetation monitoring over the African continent and modelled the Gecko Imager for the payload and an electric propulsion system on the testbench. Each model was simulated in the Simulation Third Generation (SimTG), the flight and mission control software were enhanced and a simulation of the model with the satellite was performed. The research only focused on simulating a South African developed camera product for the payload and an electric propulsion system. The propulsion system was not designed but rather extracted from a previous student's paper. The software was enhanced for both models. The simulated Gecko and electric propulsion system models were developed on the SimTG. Each model went through unit level testing to prove overall functionality. Each model was integrated with a satellite subsystem and that integration was tested. Other subsystem models were edited to accommodate the new models and the flight software was enhanced for the new models. The mission control system was updated to create telecommands and telemetry packets for the models. The simulation of the models and the integration of the models to the satellite subsystems was successful. The Gecko Imager was able to capture images and the propulsion system was not able to improve the orbit of a satellite. The realistic flight simulation of the Gecko Imager was successful. Images of South Africa and Kenya were captured during the simulation. The orbit raise manoeuvre was not successful due to the thrust acceleration not overcoming atmospheric drag. The simulation of the Gecko camera and the electric propulsion system into the SimTG was successful. All objectives were completed, and the enhancement of the flight software was successful and the creation of packets for commanding and telemetry on the mission control system was successful.

Keywords

Engineering

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