ASTER
Status: Active
Attitude STabilized free falling ExpeRiment (ASTER)
The goal of ASTER is to develop a fast, low-cost, and easy to integrate attitude control system for free falling experiments which have been ejected from sounding rockets. ASTER is currently being developed as part of the 13th Cycle of the German-Swedish student programme REXUS/BEXUS and is scheduled to fly on REXUS-30 launched from Esrange Space Center in March 2022.
The project successfully completed its IPR in August 2020, and is now busy integrating and testing their hardware, while looking forward to the Experiment Acceptance Review later on in the year. The proposed design uses three reaction wheels to quickly stabilise or rotate the experiment. The system is also designed to be easily adaptable in order to accommodate future experiments.
Payload/science
The project aims to develop a high-performance, low-cost and easy to integrate attitude control system for free falling experiments ejected from sounding rockets. The engineering solution utilises three electrically-powered reaction wheels to stabilise and orientate the free falling unit in three axes in a reduced gravity environment. The system shall be compact to ensure sufficient space to accommodate the payload of future missions. Additionally, it shall be able to achieve agile stabilization to increase the available time for experiments after successful stabilization. Furthermore, it should perform predefined slewing maneuvers to be adaptable to a wider range of applications.
Team
Position
Super brief personal motivation
Position
Super brief personal motivation
Position
Super brief personal motivation
Position
Super brief personal motivation