Bench satellite development and testing

Electrical and Electronic Engineering Department, Stellenbosch University, Banghoek Road, Stellenbosch, 7600, South Africa

Abstract

This paper discusses the development of a satellite-like system to bridge the gap between satellite development and satellite flight missions. The solution takes the form of a bench satellite, BenchSat, that can emulate satellite capabilities and interactions in a controlled environment on the ground. BenchSat utilises surrounding facilities, particularly an air bearing facility and an existing ground station, to produce a realistic test environment for satellite development. The air bearing facility entails a cart with pressurised gas which pushes the cart on a flat surface, creating a low-friction, space like environment. BenchSat comprises an electrical power subsystem, a radio communication subsystem, and an onboard computer subsystem. These systems are created to be a good representation of equivalent flight models and can serve as an initial step in the future development of each of these subsystems. A final experiment was conducted using an integrated BenchSat connected to an air bearing carrier cart. The ground station was used to give commands to the BenchSat to use its thrusters to translate and rotate the carrier cart. This creates a realistic interface to perform satellite rendezvous experiments. It is further extended to interface with a satellite simulator for Hardware-In-Loop testing and flight software development.