THUSS : Physical simulation of rendezvous and docking of spacecraft on desktop.
About The Project
This is an international programme launched by a team of undergraduates of Tsinghua University (Microsat Group), which features on the development of miniaturized physical simulation platforms for satellites in space. The project was launched on December 2014, driven by the interest of Prof. Zhong Hong (George) Zhu from York University for finding such satellite simulator platforms small in size. We developed a prototype of the machine on April 2015 under the guidance of Mr. Hongxiang Yao, PhD. student of Tsinghua University, who has previous experiences of building such systems but is much larger in size and meavier in weight. In the following months we mianly concentrated on refining the prototype, designing electronic interfaces, optimizing installation positions of payloads and configuring control softwares, which are mainly done by we undergraduates.
In late June 2015 the first set of hardwares arrived and we started the assembly of the simulators. The saaembly and testing work continued until late July, when we are finally ready to deliver our first generation model of product, THUSS-2, to our customers. The system is approximately 40x40x35cm in size and 20kg in weight, with a gridded screw-hole top for extendability. Typical usage for such systems would be rendezvous and docking experiments with 3 to 4 DOFs. The system is also capable of testing control algorithms for orbital guidance, navigation, and control.
In Janurary 2016, we received further orders and upgraded the mechanical hardwares so that an improved model, THUSS-3, is created. The basic functions of THUSS-3 is largely the same as THUSS-2, except for its better reliability and compactness. The most important improvement on THUSS-3 is the change in pressureized pipes, so that its reliability has been largely improved, therefore would be more safe to operate.
Currently, we are starting an entrepreneurship based on this production line, and are proceeding with the new model THUSS-4, where an embedded solution is provided featuring more realistic simulations of the electronic hardwares onboard, along with several improvements on air-tightness and quantitative accuracy of the thrusters.
THUSS systems are featured to proide a simple, reliable and open platform for researchers and science institutions. The production line of THUSS systems will open on demand, and expected delivery time will vary from one to three months depending on our extracurricular arrangements. Our team will come to the delivery with the equipments to install and initiallize everything for you, and will arrive on summer or winter vacations if you wish to have technical support which couldnot be done by yourself. Hardware support will always be available if fatal failures occured, and software support will continue as long as we have time.
I would also like to thank our hardware customers hereby, including York University and Shanghai Jiao Tong University, for their warm welcomes during our arrival for delivery and/or tuning. As the technolgical core of the team I also appriciate all the efforts you teammates paid in the past two years. Job well done.
Publications
- Implementation of three DoFs small satellite ground simulation system
- Physical simulation system for satellite
Citation Information:
@Inbook{Yao2016,
author={Yao, Hongxiang
and Wang, Yunjie
and Cui, Jie
and Bao, Jiali
and Yang, Haoguang
and Zhu, Zilin
and Zheng, Gangtie
and Zhu, Zheng Hong},
chapter={Implementation of three DoFs small satellite ground simulation system},
series={AIAA SciTech Forum},
year={2016},
month={Jan},
day={02},
publisher={American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics},
note={0},
doi={10.2514/6.2016-0697},
url={http://dx.doi.org/10.2514/6.2016-0697}
}
@misc{2015physical,
title={Physical simulation system for satellite},
url={https://encrypted.google.com/patents/CN105204373A?cl=en},
year={2015},
month=dec # "~30",
publisher={Google Patents},
note={CN Patent App. CN 201,510,680,932}
}
Technical Support
The control system is built with LabVIEW, running on a x86 quad-core celeron on-board computer.
The code archive of the satellite simulation system can be found on github:
History version
Latest version
And the temporary homepage for our startup:
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