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Title
Japanese: 
English:Attitude Control of Nanosatellites by Paddle Motion Using Elastic Hinges Actuated by Shape Memory Alloy 
Author
Japanese: IAI Masafumi, DURALI Mohammad, HATSUZAWA Takeshi, 初澤毅.  
English: IAI Masafumi, DURALI Mohammad, HATSUZAWA Takeshi, TAKESHI HATSUZAWA.  
Language English 
Journal/Book name
Japanese: 
English:Journal of Space Engineering 
Volume, Number, Page Vol. 3    No. 1   
Published date May 26, 2011 
Publisher
Japanese: 
English:社団法人 日本機械学会 
Conference name
Japanese: 
English: 
Conference site
Japanese: 
English: 
Abstract Recent research has been extending the applications of small satellites called microsatellites, nanosatellites, or picosatellites. To further improve capability of those satellites, a lightweight, active attitude-control mechanism is needed. This paper proposes a concept of inertial orientation control, an attitude control method using movable solar arrays. This method is made suitable for nanosatellites by the use of shape memory alloy (SMA)-actuated elastic hinges and a simple maneuver generation algorithm. The combination of SMA and an elastic hinge allows the hinge to remain lightweight and free of frictional or rolling contacts. Changes in the shrinking and stretching speeds of the SMA were measured in a vacuum chamber. The proposed algorithm constructs a maneuver to achieve arbitrary attitude change by repeating simple maneuvers called unit maneuvers. Provided with three types of unit maneuvers, each degree of freedom of the satellite can be controlled independently. Such construction requires only simple calculations, making it a practical algorithm for a nanosatellite with limited computational capability. In addition, power generation variation caused by maneuvers was analyzed to confirm that a maneuver from any initial attitude to an attitude facing the sun was justifiable in terms of the power budget.

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