PanelSat®, Scaleable Agile Satellite, Fuel Free 9-axis acs

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SoSo-steering

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This site covers PanelSat®, an agile satellite, which uses it's thin film solar cell panels for both - harvesting energy and for fuel free pointing, steering and attitude control.

Actually in development, PanelSat® will use the solar radiation pressure (srp) to turn it into and keep it in the desired direction. A second fuel free control option is to move masses through Mass Switching Units (MSU) and with them the mass center (cm) of the spacecraft.

While the operation in orbit will mainly be fuel free, thruster propulsion is also available through double thruster units (DTU) for reaching the intended orbit after launch, changing orbit or deorbiting the satellite at the end of life.

larger foto

The foto shows a small, 50 cm diameter PanelSat® printout model. The smallest base version will be about 100 cm . As it is scale able, the spacecraft size could reach nearly the diameter of the launcher. Those larger models would allow the next generation satellites with more electric and turning power, while the mass stays low compared to satellites with the same panel area.