Our five-day training courses will get you up and running with your new toolbox! Please note that the course tuition does not include the software that is used during the course; toolboxes must be purchased separately.
Any course can be customized, for example the Spacecraft Control Toolbox class can focus on a particular class of satellites such as geosynchronous satellites, low-earth orbiting satellites or interplanetary missions. A flat fee is charged to customize the course for a specific mission or application. Use of a component manufacturer’s data for a customized course requires written permission of the manufacturer.
Courses are given in our headquarters in Plainsboro, New Jersey, USA. The course can be given at the customer’s location in which case the customer must pay travel and expenses for the instructor(s) and there is a minimum of five students. Courses taught to non-US citizens may require an export license from the U.S. Department of State.
Spacecraft Control Toolbox Standard Course
This week-long course covers attitude control, orbit, and estimation functionality. Topics in design, analysis and simulation are included. Each day is divided into morning lectures and afternoon problem solving sessions. Optional problems are available for students to work on in the evenings.
| Morning | Afternoon | |
|---|---|---|
| Day 1 | Introduction to Attitude Control Systems | |
| Provides an overview of the elements of an attitude control systems including sensors and actuators. Discusses data acquisition including A/D converters, spacecraft networks. Introduces the other relevant subsystems including the thermal and power subsystems. Learn about pointing budgets. | Work through the first four example scripts in the training manual. These provide introductions to math, ephemerides and other background material. | |
| Day 2 | Attitude Kinematics, Dynamics and Disturbance Modeling | |
| Covers rigid body models and the gyrostat model for a spacecraft with reaction wheels. Introduces simple flexible body models. Discusses all disturbance sources on a spacecraft including solar, aerodynamic, RF and magnetic. | Model the disturbances on a simple spacecraft. Simulate a rigid body spacecraft in orbit. | |
| Day 3 | Attitude Control System Design | |
| Learn how to design the normal mode pointing control system for a spacecraft. Study momentum management for spacecraft that use momentum exchange devices. Learn about magnetic torquers, thrusters and reaction wheels. Learn about torque distribution. Simplified models of all actuators are used in this section. |
Implement a PID controller using reaction wheels. Add filters for flex attenuation. | |
| Day 4 | Introduction to Orbit Dynamics and Stationkeeping | |
| Study basic two body motion. Learn about orbit acquisition and stationkeeping maneuvers. Introduction to different kinds of thrusters including electric thrusters, bipropellant and monopropellant. Learn about propellant budgets and how to prepare a propellant budget. |
Plan a series of east/west and north south burns for a geosynchronous spacecraft. |
|
| Day 5 | Estimation | |
| Introduction to attitude sensing. Introduction to Kalman Filters. Learn how to estimate the attitude of a spacecraft given incomplete and periodic measurements using simpliÞed sensor models. Introduction to noise modeling and covariance analysis. |
Implement a Kalman Filter using gyros, earth sensor and sun sensor. | |
Our course will give you the confidence to perform your own analyses from scratch using the toolbox! From a satisfied customer,
“Thank you again for the training. We both think it was useful and, especially for me, gave me a very good overview.”
Inquiries
For inquiries on training or to request a quote, please fill out our contact form!