The Scintillation Prediction Observations Research Task (SPORT) satellite has achieved a major technical milestone by detumbling the 6U CubeSat to achieve 3-axis stabilization. All hardware components of the attitude determination and control system (ADCS) are confirmed to be working as expected. Additionally, the results from the closed-loop ADCS control software have validated the theoretical and modeling analysis completed by Brazil’s Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica (ITA) engineers, under the supervision of Professor Valdemir Carrara. The Brazilian Team will spend the next two weeks with calibration maneuvers and science instrument checkout. In the meantime, the team is working on several papers for conferences and journals.
In particular, an abstract entitled “On the Role of Ground-based Assets to Maximize Science Return of Small Satellites in Low Earth Orbit: The SPORT CubeSat Mission as a Case Study“, submitted by Linda Habash Krause (ST13) to the 2023 SmallSat Conference, was accepted for an Oral Presentation and a Conference Paper.
