On-Board Orientation Control of a Steerable Antenna for Ground Station Tracking on LEO Satellites

In this paper, a guidance and control algorithm for satellite onboard antenna orientation is presented. The antenna is mounted on a Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite, used in data download operations and has a 2-axis steering mechanism. The aim of the controller is to orient the antenna to the ground...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in2023 10th International Conference on Recent Advances in Air and Space Technologies (RAST) pp. 1 - 6
Main Authors Ozturk, Mustafa Yavuz, Yavuzyilmaz, Cagatay
Format Conference Proceeding
LanguageEnglish
Published IEEE 07.06.2023
Subjects
2-axis antenna steering mechanism
ground station tracking
LEO satellite
Low earth orbit satellites
Position control
Proportional control
Satellite antennas
satellite onboard antenna control
Satellites
Space technology
Steerable antennas
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Summary:In this paper, a guidance and control algorithm for satellite onboard antenna orientation is presented. The antenna is mounted on a Low-Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite, used in data download operations and has a 2-axis steering mechanism. The aim of the controller is to orient the antenna to the ground station by tracking a reference direction that is determined by the relative geometry between the satellite and the station. Tracking is done via proportional control, which inputs azimuth and elevation measurements and calculates angular speed commands to be sent to the mechanism. Continuous tracking within a certain error band is required whenever the satellite enters a certain communication cone during its pass over the ground station region. The performance of the algorithm is verified both by simulations and hardware tests performed on the actual satellite flight model.
DOI:10.1109/RAST57548.2023.10197878