HIL simulation and testing of the Beyond Atlas CubeSat

Beyond Atlas, a company based in Sweden is working on a LEO 3U-CubeSat exploration mission. As part of their maiden mission, they aim to validate the navigation, propulsion, and communication techniques of a CubeSat while it performs orbital maneuvers to collect photographs of space debris.

This study briefly introduces the Beyond Atlas mission and its CubeSat design. The thesis work then mainly focuses on the details of the ADCS (Attitude Determination and Control System) peripherals and software onboard the CubeSat. It describes the Attitude Determination peripherals such as the sun sensor, star tracker, magnetometer, and gyroscope that will be onboard the CubeSat, followed by the description of the Attitude Control peripherals, namely, the magnetorquer and the reaction wheel. Subsequently, it discusses the hardware's configuration and interface techniques with the flight computer that specifically caters to the satellite's attitude determination and control aspect. Finally, it reports a preliminary testing methodology and the corresponding results obtained from the unit testing of the peripherals and the operational testing (Detumbling and Pointing) of the ADCS of the Beyond Atlas CubeSat. Based on the testing results, the report concludes that the selected hardware for the Beyond Atlas mission, when integrated, can perform the principal functionalities.