PicSat’s Enduring Legacy. Probing the Flight of a Small Astronomical
Satellite
Cauê G. Menegaldo
1
, Fábio de O. Fialho
1,2
, Eduardo Janot-Pacheco
3
, Felipe M. Pait
1
, and Vincent Lapeyrère
2
1
Department of Telecommunications and Control Engineering, University of São Paulo, Av. Prof. Luciano Gualberto, 158, SP, 05508-080, Brazil
caue.menegaldo@gmail.com
2
LESIA, Observatoire de Paris, PSL Research University, CNRS, Sorbonne University, UPMC Univ. Paris 06, Univ. Paris Diderot, Sorbonne Paris City, France
3
Department of Astronomy, University of São Paulo, Rua do Matão, 1226, SP, 05508-090, Brazil
Received 2021 November 24; accepted 2022 January 17; published 2022 March 14
Abstract
Observation of planetary transits and other cutting-edge scientific missions can take advantage of affordable
nanosatellites to probe interesting stellar targets. PicSat, a CubeSat dedicated to observing the Beta Pictoris star
system, was designed to provide high-precision star pointing, a critical requirement for planetary transit detection.
PicSat’s Attitude Determination and Control System, responsible for delivering high-accuracy spacecraft pointing,
requires dedicated development based on dynamic simulators. This paper presents a dynamic attitude and orbit
propagation simulator for CubeSats in low Earth orbit, as well as for its de-tumbling mode. Validation has been
performed through PicSat’s in-flight data. High-precision dynamic models have been obtained for both attitude and
orbit. Such models are well suited to the different mission phases, from spacecraft design to data exploitation. It is,
therefore, a crucial tool to minimize the chance of failure of both the platform and the payload, especially in
satellites such as PicSat, whose pointing depends on both. PicSat left an enduring legacy: its platform data allow us
to obtain flight models that will be valuable for future missions.
Unified Astronomy Thesaurus concepts: Artificial satellites (68); Astronomical instrumentation (799)
1. Introduction
PicSat (Nowak et al. 2018) was a 3U (3 unit) CubeSat
launched in 2018 and designed to observe the Beta Pictoris star
system. The system comprises β Pictoris, a young (;12 Myr)
and nearby (20 pc) star, a circumstellar dust disk, and at least
two young super-Jupiter planets: β Pictoris b with 10–11 M
Jup
and β Pictoris c with 7.8 ± 0.4 M
Jup
(Lagrange et al. 2020).An
artistic representation of the system is shown in Figure 1.
A CubeSat is a small satellite composed of unit cubes of
10 cm × 10 cm × 10 cm, and no more than 1.33 kg (∼2.9 lb)
per unit. The CubeSat concept was first proposed by California
Polytechnic State University and Stanford University in 1999
Puig-Suari et al. (2001). A Cubesat often employs commercial
off-the-shelf (COTS) components and its development does not
need to follow space standards such as those from European
Cooperation for Space Standardization (ECSS). This permits fast
and inexpensive development, which is particularly suitable for
university space missions in Low Earth Orbit (LEO).
The early history of CubeSats is marked by technological
missions. After the advent of three-axis stabilization by means
of star trackers in the early 2010s, a wide variety of
applications for these spacecraft has appeared, including high
pointing accuracy scientific missions. According to the
Nanosats Database (Kulu 2020), until 2021 January 1, 1357
CubeSats with a wealth of purposes were launched. Due to the
short development life cycle and low cost, CubeSats are
becoming more popular in space science and technology. Low
cost can also justify higher risks and scientific missions with
CubeSats are being progressively used to test new theories and
techniques.
Villela et al. (2019) analyzed 855 CubeSat missions between
2017 and 2018 and found that 23.7% of launches carried out
failed during commissioning or during the beginning of life. This
condition, called infant mortality, occurs mainly with university
satellites due to the lack of proper ground tests and adequate
simulations (Langer et al. 2017). In those cases, a successful
mission may require many launches, in a “fly-learn-refly”
procedure. However, state-of-the-art scientific missions involve
unique instruments and a trial and error procedure is unfeasible.
In astrophysics, successful CubeSat missions are still
uncommon (Section 2 presents some statistics), although their
use can clearly be of great advantage not only for preparing the
next generation of space instrume nt scientists and engineers
but also for doing h igh-quali ty science. To increase satellite
reliability, a compromise between the practicality of CubeSats
and the complexity of space standards suc h as ECSS is
necessary.
Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 134:034501 (20pp), 2022 March https://doi.org/10.1088/1538-3873/ac4e1d
© 2022. The Author(s). Published by IOP Publishing Ltd on behalf of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (ASP). All rights reserved
Original content from this work may be used under the terms
of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 licence. Any further
distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title
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