RF & Microwave Technology

Invention for Spacecraft Attitude Control and Rotating Satellites

An aerospace engineering doctoral student from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign  was working on a way to eliminate vibrations on a satellite when he discovered that his invention could also stabilize and rotate the satellite. The discovery, called Multifunctional Structures for Attitude Control (MSAC), utilizes deployable panels as multifunctional structures to provide fine pointing and large slewing capabilities. This video shows the 3D-printed prototype in action and the Hardware-in-the-Loop results for a low-fidelity lumped actuator prototype executing both clockwise and counter-clockwise slews.