Autonomous navigation, attitude determination and atmospheric profiling for nanosatellite missions

超小型卫星飞行任务在验证空间技术方面越来越受欢迎。在包括地球观测和移动的通信系统在内的一系列应用中存在着潜力。为了保持这种任务的低成本，导航和姿态确定系统通常基于现成的组件。然而，这类部件不一定是空间应用的最佳选择，需要专门为超小型卫星应用开发导航接收器和姿态确定能力。就导航能力而言，全球导航卫星系统接收器必须体积小、重量轻、成本低、功耗低。在该项目中，全球导航卫星系统接收器将设计用于超小型卫星应用，并带有机载轨道确定功能，以帮助接收器跟踪和获取。将利用新的全球导航卫星系统信号，开发使用该接收器（基于无线电掩星）进行空间大气剖面分析的新方法。特别是，将利用为全球定位系统Block IIR-M卫星增加民用双频能力，以提高低层和高层大气边界附近的性能。姿态确定能力将使用专门用于超小型卫星实施的最新微机电系统传感器技术来开发。这项工作将与加拿大航天局和工业合作伙伴NovAtel Inc.合作进行。

Nanosatellite missions are becoming increasingly popular for proving space technologies. Potential exists for a range of applications including earth observation and mobile communication systems. In order to keep costs of such missions low, navigation and attitude determination systems are generally based on off-the-shelf components. Such components are not necessarily optimized for space applications, however, and a need exists to develop a navigation receiver and attitude determination capabilities specifically for nanosatellite applications. In the case of navigation capabilities, GNSS receivers must be small, lightweight, low-cost, and have low power consumption. In this project Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receivers will be designed for nanosatellite applications, with onboard orbit determination to aid receiver tracking and acquisition. Novel methods for space-borne atmospheric profiling using this receiver (based on radio occultations) will be developed taking advantage of new GNSS signals. In particular, the addition of civilian dual-frequency capabilities to the GPS Block IIR-M satellites will be exploited to improve performance near the lower and upper atmosphere boundaries. Attitude determination capabilities will be developed using the latest MEMS sensor technologies, specialized for nanosatellite implementation. This work will be conducted in partnership with the Canadian Space Agency and industrial partner NovAtel Inc.