Four Ph.D studentships and One Postdoctoral Fellowship are immediately available in an NSERC-Canadian Space Agency-Collaborative Research Project Fault Tolerant and Intelligent Attitude Control System for Micro- and Nano-Satellites and a Space Technologies Development Program (STDP) Project “Autonomous Station-Keeping and Formation Maintenance of Microsatellites using Solar Radiation Pressure and Aerodynamic Forces”.
These are joint projects between the Ryerson University (Toronto) and McGill University (Montreal) in partnership with space industries.
The projects deal with dynamics and control of satellites with focus on specific research areas. The project “Fault Tolerant and Intelligent Attitude Control System for Micro- and Nano-Satellites” involves research in the areas of 1) Attitude Control Using Nanowheels and CMGs, and 2) Fault Tolerant Attitude Control. The project “Autonomous Station-Keeping and Formation Maintenance of Microsatellites using Solar Radiation Pressure and Aerodynamic Forces” deals with research in the areas of 1) Orbit and Attitude Control, 2) Formation Keeping and 3) Forces and Torques on Satellites due to Solar Radiation Pressure and Aerodynamic Forces. In recent years, microsatellites and nanosatellites have experienced rapid growth due to their low cost and short development time.
The proposed research will examine orbit and attitude control systems for these satellites, and design fault-tolerant and intelligent orbit and attitude controllers using reaction wheels, control moment gyros, and environmental forces.
