NEWS
Alaska Microgravity Team on the KUAC!
Alaska Microgravity Team on the radio. Download the KUAC story here
Alaska Microgravity Team in the News!
Alaska Microgravity Team in the News! As our flight date rapidly approaches, our audience is growing: in the last month we have appeared in the UAF Sun Star, Fairbanks Daily News Miner, ... (full article)
Feb. 21st: First uG movie!
We have our first video! This is the first in the series of videos showcasing our activities here at uG. (click here to watch)
Dec. 11th: More coils
We absconded with the 88 [mH] Helmholtz coils from the EE203 lab and set them up around our prototype. With the coils properly spaced and the prototype elevated to the level of the center axis... (click here for full article)
Dec. 6th: We have been selected!
We've been selected for the 2008 Flight Campaign! The Reduced Gravity Student Flight Program has officially announced the selectees for the 2008 flight, and we are on page three (click here to see)
Nov. 23rd: Thanksgiving coils
The UAF MicroGRAV team celebrated the Thanksgiving holiday by fabricating prototype magnetic torque coils, and configuring them such that we caused a magnet—placed at the center of perpendicular coils—to rotate very rapidly. (click here for full article)
ALASKA MICROGRAVITY TEAM
The Alaska Microgravity Team has recently submitted a proposal, titled "Investigation of Small Satellite Attitude Control Systems," to the NASA Microgravity University. We are currently under consideration for a flight session with the Reduced Gravity Student Flight Opportunities Program, where we will test small satellite attitude control systems in the zero-g environment of a NASA C-9 aircraft!
Our proposal focuses on the concern of small satellite accuracy and stability. Because they are confined to volumes defined by mere centimeters, small satellites face unique design challenges -- especially in the area of attitude control. There is no room for a complex combustion system, and safety considerations make such a control system impractical besides. Therefore small satellites use more unconventional systems such as magnetic torque coils and reaction wheels.
An area of concern for satellites is how efficiently they can achieve a target attitude (pointing direction). Attitude control systems rely on feedback from sensors to tell the satellite if it is pointing in the right direction -- the result is that satellites may wobble back and forth over a target location as they figure out and "settle into" a desired attitude. This is because the satellite turns past the desired attitude before realizing it, turns around, passes it again (only not so far this time), and so on until it is pointing in the desired direction. The opposite extreme is that the satellite moves extremely slowly into its desired attitude, with a control system constantly checking to see if the target direction has been reached.
The objective of the Alaska Microgravity Team's proposal is to investigate the behavior of two common small satellite attitude control systems (magnetic torque coils and reaction wheels) with the intent of characterizing the "wobble" of a small satellite as it settles into a desired orientation. The zero-gravity environment of the C-9 will allow the attitude control platforms to function in 3-D space, providing test data that can not be obtained in an earth-based lab's gravity-restrained environment.