Design, Implementation and Testing of Operational Modes in ADCS of a CubeSat

Abstract

This paper presents design, implementation and testing of attitude determination and control subsystem (ADCS) in CubeSat. The procedures of designing the subsystem are discussed. They include mission requirements and specifications, sizing, components selection, software and hardware design. The proposed subsystem is experimentally tested by using low-cost experimental setup. This setup includes an air bearing table that allows 1-DOF friction-less rotation of the CubeSat. The Detumbling and the sun-pointing modes are experimentally demonstrated by using this setup.