Limitations of scaling momentum control strategies to small spacecraft

AttoSats: ChipSats, other Gram-Scale Spacecraft, and Beyond

“…Low mass also correlates with low cost in the space domain [41]. The small size correlates with a high mass fraction for the attitude determination and control system (ADCS) [26]. The small size, however, allows for packing a larger number of spacecraft into a given payload volume, leading to a potentially large number of spacecraft launched into space.…”

“…We use the notion of ChipSat whenever the AttoSat has, in addition to its low mass, a flat shape and consists of a single printed circuit board (PCB). This distinction is similar to the one between PicoSats and CubeSats, where the former indicates spacecraft in a specific mass range and the latter refers to Previous publications on AttoSats have mostly focused on their hardware design [4], communication link design [4], feasibility [7], propulsion [16], [17], [18], [12], [19], [20], [21], [22], use for planetary exploration [23], [24], orbit dynamics [25], [20], [26], [27], [28], [29], [16], [30], atmospheric entry [31], [32], deployable structures for solar and laser sails [33], [34], and impact of redundancy on mission design [15], [14]. However, one of the open questions is, which missions would actually be enabled or drastically improved via ChipSat / AttoSat capabilities.…”