Mission Design for the CubeSat OUFTI-1

CHAPTER 7This rough estimation is extremely useful to have an idea of the maximumintensity of each perturbing couple but, as their directions are unknown, wecannot add them to have the rotation rate of the satellite.We made therefore a simulation for one day of the disturbing couples and wecalculate the cumulated angular momentum. A priori, a longer simulation couldbe possible but the absence of attitude control causes the satellite to turn abouttheir axis and a really small time step is needed the have reliable results: thecomputing time becomes quick huge and difficult to handle.If we accept the hypothesis that the satellite is not turning, we have theresults shown in figures 7.2 and 7.3.Figure 7.2: Gravity gradient couple for one orbit in case of non updated configurationGalli Stefania 68 University of Liège