Prototype designing of an Earth Horizon Sensor for Attitude determination of a CubeSat
This project focuses on the prototype design of the Earth horizon sensor for CubeSat. Earth horizon. The sensor is a part of the attitude control system which takes part in controlling the attitude of the satellite by detecting the roll and pitch of the satellite. Therm
2025-06-28 16:34:37 - Adil Khan
Prototype designing of an Earth Horizon Sensor for Attitude determination of a CubeSat
Project Area of Specialization Electrical/Electronic EngineeringProject SummaryThis project focuses on the prototype design of the Earth horizon sensor for CubeSat. Earth horizon. The sensor is a part of the attitude control system which takes part in controlling the attitude of the satellite by detecting the roll and pitch of the satellite. Thermopile technology will be used in this design. This project will be designed for small satellites, i.e., CubeSat that could be used for several missions. Additionally, the detection of an edge could be done through install software in the microcontroller and then will be tested several times to check the performance of the prototype. The selection of sub-components for this design will be in such a way to reduce its cost with a high probability of work. In this way, an efficient and less costly prototype for the detection of roll and pitch value of the satellite will be designed.
Project Objectives- To design a prototype of the earth horizon sensor.
- To create respective software simulations.
- To design simulations in C language.
- To analyze and identify operational parameters.
- To find the accuracy of the earth horizon sensor.
- Testing the earth horizon sensor for the space environment.
The first phase includes a review of related literature. After that, the selection of the sub-components (infrared sensor, microprocessor, circuit design etc.) of the earth horizon sensor will be done. Then the working of all these sub-components will be checked. The main work is to detect the horizon of the earth with taken images by an infrared camera and then with the help of one of the good edge detection algorithm to detect the attitude of a small satellite. Then the processing of these images that have been taken by the infrared camera through a microprocessor will be done. After that, a final software will be designed for the earth horizon sensor. In the end, the hardware components will be joint and tested.
Benefits of the Project- Prototype Development of Earth horizon sensor for CubeSat satellites.
- The research work can provide a base for the future development of the earth horizon sensor.
- I will be able to commercialize our project.
- Pakistan space agency could be on the way to success.
This hardware design could be converted to be implementable on the attitude system of the CubeSat. With the help of this design, we will be able to calculate the roll and pitch of the CubeSat in low earth orbit. And hence it helps in the attitude control of the CubeSat.
Final Deliverable of the Project Hardware SystemCore Industry EducationOther Industries Others Core Technology OthersOther Technologies Artificial Intelligence(AI)Sustainable Development Goals Decent Work and Economic GrowthRequired Resources| Item Name | Type | No. of Units | Per Unit Cost (in Rs) | Total (in Rs) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total in (Rs) | 73864 | |||
| HTPA 80x64d L10/0.7 HiA (Thermopile technology | Equipment | 1 | 50601 | 50601 |
| C8051F040 | Miscellaneous | 2 | 1939 | 3877 |
| C8051F04x-DK | Equipment | 2 | 9693 | 19386 |