Desarrollo de una plataforma de verificación sistemas de actitud de pequeños satélites para trabajar en una cámara de vacío.

Abstract

The orbit attitude control systems are of vital importance for the determination of orbital elements and the correct orientation of the satellites to ground targets. They usually work under atmospheric conditions which does not allow testing of small plasma thrusters designed for CubeSat that require a plasma environment. The following work focuses on verifying whether it is possible to develop a verification system attitude in special conditions required for flight models of plasma thrusters in space environment. There is no accessible reference for this type of attitude verification systems and is considered innovative in the field of verification of systems, as a means to study the interaction of the space environment with CubeSat. It was designed and built a test platform to use at various stages of space environment, an atmosphere of free friction and zero gravity, high vacuum and plasma environment, plasma conditions generated were analyzed using a Langmuir probe and a small plasma thruster VAT (Vacuum Arc thruster) Propellant vacuum arc, to observe the effect of this attitude control device systems on the platform and prove that it meets the conditions to be use as verification system with spacecraft space environment interaction.