Optimising the Design of a Recoverable Microsatellite

Subject:

This thesis is aimed at performing a complete simulation of a novel recoverable microsatellite and its mission.  This spacecraft must function as a traditional satellite while in Low Earth Orbit, but then it is required to undergo atmospheric re-entry and land, intact, on ground. This brings a variety of challenges to both the mission and spacecraft designs.

The work would commence by understanding the initial definition which currently exists and then optimising this in the light of the many competing requirements of its mission requirements, in particular, those of thermal and aerodynamic stability. Aspects such as the attitude and orbit control modes (in particular, for the orbit-lowering and re-entry phase of the mission), the onboard computing and communications aspects would need to be defined to a high level of detail, while also respecting the requirements of an existing bus architecture which is currently under consideration for the mission.

Then, a thorough simulation of the system would commence, using tools at the University of Stuttgart€™s IRS (Institut für Raumfahrtsysteme) and the definition of the system parameters defined in the first phase of the work. 

The candidate should be competent with CAD, Matlab and mission analysis software, such as STK (or be able to become competent quickly) and strong programming skills in C++.