Simplified architecture of EPS for nano Satellite

S Venugopalan, Dayanand BM, Shanmugham C N, Divya Rao, V S Rao, V K Agrawal PES Institute of Technology, Bangalore, Karnataka, India ABSTRACT

PES Institute of Technology (PESIT), Bangalore has initiated the development of a student nano-satellite. A consortium of colleges has been formed to pool laboratory resources and research funding. Design, building, testing and flying satellites is challenging and requires the best effort of everyone involved. The objective of this is to familiarize and excite students in the area of space technology and provide practical experience in building a reliable, efficient low cost imaging satellite. Satellite is planned to be positioned in a 10:30 AM Polar Sun Synchronous orbit with an altitude range of 600 km -800 km and inclination of 980. A robust and highly reliable power system has been designed with ATJ solar cells, COTS technology Lithium ion batteries, battery management & protection unit, advanced technology electronic parts and components. DC-DC buck boost converters are used to provide regulated power supply from the solar array/battery to different onboard subsystems. The unique feature of the system is protection and management of power system elements (enable/disable of on-board devices, over current protection, health monitoring) and the distribution through interface with OBC. This paper describes the architecture and design details of the EPS.

It is estimated that pointing accuracy of 5o can be achieved by using magnetorquer coils as actuators. HRM 3400 digital compass Magnetometer will be used as attitude sensor. ATMEL AVR32 microcontroller will be used for the OBC to perform command as well as data handling function. NanoCam system for the payload consisting of Lens, lens table, image acquisition board, image processing board and software has been designed. CCSDS recommended turbo code will be used for the telemetry data. Telecommand will use BCH code and FSK/FM modulation for 100 bps data rate. PiSAT will be using 2.24GHz for the downlink and 2.03GHZ for the uplink. P/L data will be telemetered at 10KBPS. 30 high efficiency ATJ solar cells will be used to generate 7 watts power to meet the S/C power requirement of 6 watts. COTS technology 18650 lithium ion cells in 1S2P configuration limits the DOD to less than 15%. MAX8934A is used for the management of battery. 3.3 and 5 volt regulators are used to meet the needs of onboard systems. Passive thermal will be used for temperature maintenance of various subsystems. PiSAT measures 200 mm X 200 mm X 150 mm and the mass will be less than 10 kgs. The plan is to build a fully functional Pi Sat in less than a year. In Phase 1 of the project, a spin stabilized satellite will be built with imaging payload (2048 X 1536 pixels) and Phase II will realize a 3 axis stabilized imaging satellite incorporating advanced 3-axis stabilized reaction wheel and S-band Communication system for disaster management and civic planning.