Publications related to High Earth orbit

Microstrip patch antennas with broad beamwidth

Microstrip antennas offer a broad set of advantages such as low profile, light weight, easy fabrication and low cost. As these are desirable or even critical for a broad range of applications, there has been a large interest for these antennas in the anten ...

EPFL2023

Biomechanics at the workplace under hypogravity conditions

Tatiana Maillard

The main goal of my research is to establish guidelines for workplace design based on human biomechanics: specifically sitting workplaces and handling areas in 1/6G-1/3G (Moon, Mars) conditions. Such a workplace could be used in long-term space missions in ...

EPFL2022

Design of an intake and a thruster for an atmosphere-breathing electric propulsion system

Francesco Romano, Thomas Binderup Jensen

Challenging space missions include those at very low altitudes, where the atmosphere is the source of aerodynamic drag on the spacecraft, that finally defines the mission's lifetime, unless a way to compensate for it is provided. This environment is named ...

2022

Intensifying space activity calls for increased scrutiny of risks

Romain Buchs

As the pace of space activities accelerates and societies become more reliant on space-based systems, the associated risks deserve more attention. Satellites form a critical infrastructure on which military, civil and commercial entities rely. The services ...

EPFL International Risk Governance Center2021

X-ray pulsar-based GNC system for formation flying in high Earth orbits

Volker Gass, Camille Sébastien Pirat

In this paper, comprehensive pulsar-based Guidance, Navigation and Control (GNC) system is designed and applied to satellites formation flying. The complete autonomy of the X-ray pulsar navigation technology provides both absolute and relative positioning ...

PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD2020

Antennas for CubeSat Communication

Miroslav Veljovic

CubeSats are a type of small satellites (< 500 kg) that weigh several kilograms and consist of multiple Units (U) measuring 100 × 100 × 113.5 mm3. CubeSats emerged as a low-cost alternative to conventional large satellites, and have since demonstrated capa ...

EPFL2020

Guidance, Navigation and Control for Autonomous Cooperative Docking of CubeSats

Volker Gass, Camille Sébastien Pirat, Pierre-Alain Mäusli

Is it possible to dock CubeSats in Low Earth Orbit? The challenges are mainly associated with the level of miniaturisation. A docking mechanism was designed, built and tested in the laboratory. Results show that a relative precision better than 1 cm and 2 ...

2018

Guidance, Navigation and Control for Autonomous Rendezvous and Docking of Nano-Satellites

Camille Sébastien Pirat

Is it possible to dock CubeSats in Low Earth Orbit? Challenges are associated with the level of miniaturisation: the docking accuracy is driven by the docking mechanism dimensions. The achievable docking performance with the Guidance, Navigation and Contro ...

EPFL2018

Periodic cellular aluminum structures for space applications : from casting to additive manufacturing

Florian Thibaut Gallien

Mass is one of the crucial parameters for hardware that has to be placed in Earth orbit. Due to its harsh environment, a material with highest specific properties is desired to achieve space missions. The rise and development of new technologies, such as a ...

EPFL2018

High accuracy GNSS based navigation in GEO

Pierre-André Farine, Cyril Botteron, Vincenzo Capuano, Paul David Blunt, Endrit Shehaj

Although significant improvements in efficiency and performance of communication satellites have been achieved in the past decades, it is expected that the demand for new platforms in Geostationary Orbit (GEO) and for the On-Orbit Servicing (OOS) on the ex ...

Elsevier2017

GNSS/INS/Star Tracker Integration for Real-Time On-Board Autonomous Orbit and Attitude Determination in LEO, MEO, GEO and Beyond

Pierre-André Farine, Cyril Botteron, Vincenzo Capuano, Paul David Blunt, Endrit Shehaj

In our previous studies, we demonstrated that Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) signals can be processed, not only in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), but also in higher earth orbits, up to the Moon. In order to maximize the GNSSbased navigation performance, ...

2017

An adaptive GNSS-based reduced dynamic approach for real time autonomous navigation from the Earth to the Moon

Pierre-André Farine, Cyril Botteron, Vincenzo Capuano, Paul David Blunt, Endrit Shehaj

In this research study we describe our last effort in further improving the achievable Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) based navigation performance in an Earth-Moon Transfer Orbit (MTO). The GNSS-based orbital filter we implemented previously wit ...

2017

Availability and ranging error analysis for a GPS L1/L5 receiver navigating to the Moon

Pierre-André Farine, Cyril Botteron, Vincenzo Capuano, Paul David Blunt, Endrit Shehaj, Ban Wang

Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) based navigation is already adopted in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), where the presence of strong GNSS signals and the good relative geometry between the receiver and the transmitters enable precise orbit determination. H ...

Ieee2017

GPS Based Navigation Performance Analysis within and beyond the Space Service Volume for Different Transmitters’ Antenna Patterns

Pierre-André Farine, Cyril Botteron, Vincenzo Capuano, Paul David Blunt, Endrit Shehaj

In recent years, global navigation satellite system (GNSS)-based navigation in high earth orbits (HEOs) has become a field of research interest since it can increase the spacecraft’s autonomy, thereby reducing the operating costs. However, the GNSS availab ...

2017

Standalone GPS L1 C/A Receiver for Lunar Missions

Pierre-André Farine, Cyril Botteron, Jérôme Leclère, Vincenzo Capuano, Paul David Blunt, Jia Tian, Yanguang Wang

Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSSs) were originally introduced to provide positioning and timing services for terrestrial Earth users. However, space users increasingly rely on GNSS for spacecraft navigation and other science applications at severa ...

Mdpi Ag2016

GNSS-Based Navigation for Lunar Missions

Vincenzo Capuano

Numerous applications, not only Earth-based, but also space-based, have strengthened the interest of the international scientific community in using Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSSs) as navigation systems for space missions that require good accu ...

EPFL2016

GPS-based orbital filter to reach the moon

Pierre-André Farine, Cyril Botteron, Vincenzo Capuano

Nowadays, global navigation satellite systems (GNSSs) are used for many new applications that go further than the original goal of providing position, velocity and timing for land, maritime and air applications. In particular, GNSS receivers have been adop ...

2015

GNSS-based Orbital Filter for Earth Moon Transfer Orbits

Pierre-André Farine, Cyril Botteron, Vincenzo Capuano

Numerous applications, not only Earth-based, but also space-based, have strengthened the interest of the international scientific community in using Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSSs) as navigation systems for space missions that require good accu ...

Cambridge University Press2016

Rollable Multisegment Dielectric Elastomer Minimum Energy Structures for a Deployable Microsatellite Gripper

Herbert Shea, Volker Gass, Samuel Rosset, Jun Shintake, Muriel Richard, Irina Gavrilovich, Oluwaseun Adelowo Araromi

Debris in space presents an ever-increasing problem for spacecraft in Earth orbit. As a step in the mitigation of this issue, the CleanSpace One (CSO) microsatellite has been proposed. Its mission is to perform active debris removal of a decommissioned nan ...

Ieee-Inst Electrical Electronics Engineers Inc2015

FEASIBILITY STUDY OF GNSS AS NAVIGATION SYSTEM TO REACH THE MOON

Pierre-André Farine, Cyril Botteron, Vincenzo Capuano

Reaching the Moon poses very strict requirements in terms of performance, flexibility and cost for all the spacecraft subsystems. These requirements become more stringent if the mission is designed to be accomplished using a small spacecraft. The navigatio ...

Elsevier2015