Miniature Control Moment Gyroscope development

Honeybee Robotics Spacecraft Mechanisms Corporation has developed a Control Moment Gyroscope product suitable for small spacecraft. Each individual CMG exhibits a nominal angular momentum of 56 mNm-s with a peak of 86 mNm-s, and corresponding output torques of 112 mNm and 172 mNm respectively. Each unit measures 48 × 48 × 91 mm and weighs 600 grams. The control electronics are capable of driving 4 CMGs and executing a steering law to synthesize individual actuator commands from a torque triple or torque quaternion command. The industry will see an increasing role in the near future for small satellites in the 20–100 kg size range. We frame the CMG array capability by presenting a baseline application - using the Coral Reef Ecosystem Spectro-Photometric Observatory (CRESPO) mission concept (100 kg satellite) combined with requirements for the Hyperspectral Imager for the Coastal Ocean (HICO) on the International Space Station. We show how a small CMG array is capable of the representative slew maneuvers by exceeding the necessary slew rates of 0.75 deg/s for a “Soak and Shoot” flight plan, with maximum slew rates in excess of 1.5 deg/s. This paper will discuss the demonstrated performance of the system, including environmental test results, and the baseline application.