Research>Flight dynamics>Spacecraft dynamics

Background

Starchaser are a company based in Salford aiming to develop a reusable vertical launch system for space tourism applications. The work introduced here is by Stephen Greenland, a former undergraduate at the University of Manchester, who took a placement at Starchaser as part of his MEng in Avionics Systems and also did his final year research project linked with Starchaser.

The work represents a case study of the application of current systems and control technology to the attitude control of a spacecraft for space tourism applications. The work is original in that control system requirements for the relatively short duration/low altitude space tourism mission are unique and that there are no previous studies in this area. The work is innovative in that it uses a combination of technology from the Apollo moon landings coupled with more advanced control capabilities available due to advances in sensors, control theory and processing power. The paper provides a bench mark study on affordable control technology suitable for space tourism missions.

Publications

Greenland, S., Crowther, W.J., ‘Development of an Attitude Guidance and Control System for the Thunderstar Suborbital Spacecraft’,Proc. Instn. Mech. Engrs Part G (Journal of Aerospace Engineering), vol 221, No 2, pp.259-272, 2007