4 ms·

A Guide to Magnetorquers for Satellites

97 points by kartikkumar 7y ago

penagwin 7y ago
Really interesting wikipedia article on them too (the article borrows from it a bit). This is really amusing to me: > The Michigan Exploration Laboratory (MXL) suspects that the M-Cubed CubeSat, a joint project run by MXL and JPL, became magnetically conjoined to Explorer-1 Prime, a second CubeSat released at the same time, via strong onboard magnets used for passive attitude control, after deploying on October 28, 2011.[5] This is the first non-destructive latching of two satellites.[6]
- somesortofsystm 7y ago
  Honestly .. now I need to know about the first destructive latching of satellites more than anything else on HN today ..
  - erigeron 7y ago
    Check out the Kosmos-2251/Iridium-33 collision. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_satellite_collision https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_satellite_collision
    - kartikkumar 7y ago
      TS Kelso at AGI put out an interesting white paper with more details: https://www.agi.com/resources/white-papers/analysis-of-the-iridium-33-cosmos-2251-collision https://www.agi.com/resources/white-papers/analysis-of-the-i... Kelso is also the brains behind CelesTrak for debris tracking: https://www.celestrak.com https://www.celestrak.com There are also a number of videos on YouTube of the collision profile, made using AGI's Systems Toolkit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oRC9dHKI9Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oRC9dHKI9Y
    - perl4ever 7y ago
      I'm unclear what "at a speed of" means. Is this relative velocity or just how fast they were both orbiting? Why phrase it this way, I wonder.
kartikkumar 7y ago
Hey folks, nice to see this article hit the frontpage. I'm one of the co-founders at satsearch. We're working on building more content like this to open up the space industry to more people. After some initial feedback, we're already working to expanding this article. We've also published articles on small satellite thrusters [1] and reaction wheels [2]. We'll be publishing one on ground-station-as-a-service soon. Would love your feedback/input on what you'd like to see next. [1] https://blog.satsearch.co/2019-07-10-cubesat-thrusters-an-overview-of-in-space-propulsion-products-for-small-satellites.html https://blog.satsearch.co/2019-07-10-cubesat-thrusters-an-ov... [2] https://blog.satsearch.co/2019-07-25-reaction-wheels-an-overview-of-attitude-control-systems-available-on-the-global-marketplace-for-space.html https://blog.satsearch.co/2019-07-25-reaction-wheels-an-over...
- avmich 7y ago
  Star trackers, please.
  - kartikkumar 7y ago
    Thanks for the suggestion! Star trackers and sun sensors are in the pipeline over the next couple of months :)
    - avmich 7y ago
      Thanks! One of next logical topics would be various devices for communication with Earth or in space (say, to a communication satellite).
      - kartikkumar 7y ago
        Do you mean comms systems like transceivers, antenna, etc.? There's some really exciting stuff going on with phased arrays and optical comms at the moment. Software-Defined Radio (SDR) is also becoming an increasing important area of innovation for satellite comms.
- sjburt 7y ago

97 points by kartikkumar 7y ago

Really interesting wikipedia article on them too (the article borrows from it a bit). This is really amusing to me: > The Michigan Exploration Laboratory (MXL) suspects that the M-Cubed CubeSat, a joint project run by MXL and JPL, became magnetically conjoined to Explorer-1 Prime, a second CubeSat released at the same time, via strong onboard magnets used for passive attitude control, after deploying on October 28, 2011.[5] This is the first non-destructive latching of two satellites.[6]

somesortofsystm 7y ago
Honestly .. now I need to know about the first destructive latching of satellites more than anything else on HN today ..
- erigeron 7y ago
  Check out the Kosmos-2251/Iridium-33 collision. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_satellite_collision https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_satellite_collision
  - kartikkumar 7y ago
    TS Kelso at AGI put out an interesting white paper with more details: https://www.agi.com/resources/white-papers/analysis-of-the-iridium-33-cosmos-2251-collision https://www.agi.com/resources/white-papers/analysis-of-the-i... Kelso is also the brains behind CelesTrak for debris tracking: https://www.celestrak.com https://www.celestrak.com There are also a number of videos on YouTube of the collision profile, made using AGI's Systems Toolkit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oRC9dHKI9Y https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oRC9dHKI9Y
  - perl4ever 7y ago
    I'm unclear what "at a speed of" means. Is this relative velocity or just how fast they were both orbiting? Why phrase it this way, I wonder.

kartikkumar 7y ago

Hey folks, nice to see this article hit the frontpage. I'm one of the co-founders at satsearch. We're working on building more content like this to open up the space industry to more people. After some initial feedback, we're already working to expanding this article. We've also published articles on small satellite thrusters [1] and reaction wheels [2]. We'll be publishing one on ground-station-as-a-service soon. Would love your feedback/input on what you'd like to see next. [1] https://blog.satsearch.co/2019-07-10-cubesat-thrusters-an-overview-of-in-space-propulsion-products-for-small-satellites.html https://blog.satsearch.co/2019-07-10-cubesat-thrusters-an-ov... [2] https://blog.satsearch.co/2019-07-25-reaction-wheels-an-overview-of-attitude-control-systems-available-on-the-global-marketplace-for-space.html https://blog.satsearch.co/2019-07-25-reaction-wheels-an-over...

avmich 7y ago
Star trackers, please.
- kartikkumar 7y ago
  Thanks for the suggestion! Star trackers and sun sensors are in the pipeline over the next couple of months :)
  - avmich 7y ago
    Thanks! One of next logical topics would be various devices for communication with Earth or in space (say, to a communication satellite).
    - kartikkumar 7y ago
      Do you mean comms systems like transceivers, antenna, etc.? There's some really exciting stuff going on with phased arrays and optical comms at the moment. Software-Defined Radio (SDR) is also becoming an increasing important area of innovation for satellite comms.
sjburt 7y ago