Contribution to the development of pico-satellites for Earth observation and technology demonstrators

• Autores: Roger Jové Casulleras
• Directores de la Tesis: Daniel Crespo Artiaga (dir. tes.), Adriano José Camps Carmona (dir. tes.)
• Lectura: En la Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) ( España ) en 2015
• Idioma: inglés
• Tribunal Calificador de la Tesis: Jordi Isern Vilaboy (presid.), Jordi Gutiérrez Cabello (secret.), Jorge Corbera Simon (voc.)
• Materias:
  • Ciencias tecnológicas
    • Tecnología del espacio
      • Satélites artificiales
• Enlaces
  • Tesis en acceso abierto en: TDX
• Resumen

  • The submitted Ph.D. thesis is a contribution to the development of pico-satellites and nano-satellites for Earth Observation and Technology Demonstrators. Development of satellites with a mass from 1 kg up to 10 kg has really boosted during the past 15 years offering large costs reduction with respect to conventional (larger) satellites at compromised performances. However, these performances are increasing step by step, and their potential is about to explode. With 1.3 kg and a volume of 1 liter, 3Cat-1 is the first pico-satellite class satellite with up to seven different payloads on board: a harvesting energy powered beacon, a new topology solar cells, an optical sensor, a Geiger counter, a mono-atomic MEMS oxygen detector, a graphene transistor, and a Wireless Power Transfer experiment. Additionally, many main subsystems like the Electrical Power, the Attitude Determination and Control, and the Communication subsystems have been developed during this PhD. A description of each subsystem and how they have been integrated under these constrains are described in this PhD Thesis report. In the subsystems and in the experiments there are novel concepts and designs that will be explained. Some have been already published in the technical and scientific literature, others will be in the near future.