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Princeton Satellite Systems

Tag: Toolboxes

  • Aerospace Engineering Winter Internship

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    Will Huang
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    I worked on two projects during my winter internship at Princeton Satellite Systems: a two-stage-to-orbit (TSTO) launch vehicle design proposal related to the NASA Space Launch System (SLS) and a satellite conjunction maneuver demo. These both used the Spacecraft Control Toolbox for MATLAB. One of the main ideas behind the TSTO launch vehicle project is…

  • Applying our Toolboxes to ITER and DEMO fusion reactors

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    Christopher Galea
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    Last week, PSS Mike Paluszek visited ITER, the international fusion research experiment under construction in France. In light of Mike’s recent visit to ITER, we wanted to showcase an application of our tokamak Fusion Reactor Design function to the design of ITER. This function is part of the Fusion Energy Toolbox for MATLAB, a toolbox…

  • Doing the Mars run with fusion propulsion at 1 G

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    Stephanie Thomas
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    We received a comment on LinkedIn about how fast the “Mars run” could be achieved with a sustained 1 G acceleration. The reader suggested this could be done in 40 hours. What engine parameters would be required to make that happen? Using a simple constant-acceleration, straight-line analysis, you can indeed compute that the trip should…

    Doing the Mars run with fusion propulsion at 1 G

  • New Fusion Reactor Design Function

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    Christopher Galea
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    The Fusion Energy Toolbox for MATLAB is a toolbox for designing fusion reactors and for studying plasma physics. It includes a wide variety of physics and engineering tools. The latest addition to this toolbox is a new function for designing tokamaks, based on the paper in reference [1]. Tokamaks have been the leading magnetic confinement…

  • Hohmann Transfer Simulation with the Spacecraft Control Toolbox

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    Michael Paluszek
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    Hohmann transfers are a well-known maneuver used to change the semi-major axis of an orbit. The Spacecraft Control Toolbox allows you to compute the required velocity changes, and integrate them into a full simulation. In this demonstration, we create a 6U CubeSat that has 3 orthogonal reaction wheels and a single hydrazine thruster. The thruster…

  • PSS Toolboxes 2021.1 Now Available!

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    Michael Paluszek
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    Version 2021.1 of Princeton Satellite Systems toolboxes for MATLAB is now available! Over 50 new functions and scripts are included. Many other existing functions have been improved. One new function is AtmNRLMSISE.m, an atmosphere function based on the NRL MSISE model. It is uses extensive flight data and includes sun effects. It computes the overall…

  • Updates for the 2019 Aircraft Control Toolbox

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    Michael Paluszek
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    We’ve added some new tools to the Aircraft Control Toolbox for our upcoming 2019 release. The first is a new GUI for creating aircraft models. You import a Wavefront OBJ files and then you point and click to define leading edges, wing areas, engine locations and so forth. This makes it easier to import the…

  • Lunar Orbit Insertion Maneuver

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    Michael Paluszek
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    New functions in the Lunar Cube module in 2016.1 allow you to easily plan lunar insertion and orbit change maneuvers. In the following pictures you can see a lunar orbit insertion from a hyperbolic orbit. In all figures the lunar terrain is exaggerated by a factor of 10. The same maneuver looking down on the…

  • Lunar Cube Module for 2016.1

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    Michael Paluszek
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    We are adding the Lunar Cube Module in 2016.1 to our CubeSat Toolbox for MATLAB! It allows users to analyze and simulateCubeSats in lunar transfer and lunar orbit. It includes a new dynamical model for CubeSats that includes: Earth, Moon and Sun gravity based on the JPL ephemerides Spherical harmonic lunar gravity model Reaction wheels…

  • Pluto Spacecraft

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    Michael Paluszek
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    Here is a picture of our DFD transfer vehicle. You can see the lander on the front and two Deep Space Optical Communication System (DSOC) assemblies mounted on trusses. There are 2 DFD engines. A picture of the Pluto Lander. The solar panels are illuminated by a laser from the orbiter. The lander has a…