Determining of Equilibrium Positions of CubeSat Nanosatellite under the Influence of Aerodynamic and Gravitational Moments

Abstract

This paper studies the motion relative to the center of mass of a CubeSat nanosatellite on a low circular orbit under the aerodynamic and gravitational moments. One of the important differences between the dynamics of CubeSat nanosatellites and axisymmetric satellites is that the moment of the aerodynamic drag force depends on two angles of orientation: angles of attack and proper rotation, due to the rectangular parallelepiped shape. The formulas for calculating the relative equilibrium positions in the orbital reference frame for the dynamically non-symmetrical CubeSat nanosatellite, when its center of mass is displaced from the geometric center along longitudinal axis, are obtained.