SwissCube Inertial Wheel Assembly Electronics

The overall goal is the development of a new control software for the inertial wheel assembly of the SwissCube project. SwissCube is an educational project of several Swiss universities and technical colleges under the supervision of the Space Center of EPFL1. The SwissCube is a pico-satellite which respects the CubeSat standard and is almost entirely built by students from the different participating universities. The inertial wheel assembly (IWA) is composed of the IWA motor, the inertial wheel itself and the command electronics. The system fulfills two functions at the same time: • Stabilization of the spatial orientation of the satellite using the gyroscopic effect (used as a momentum wheel) • Controlled rotation of the satellite around the axis of rotation of the IWA for compensation of in-orbit perturbations as well as reorientation (reaction wheel mode)