Projeto conceitual de um rastreador de satélites

Abstract

Given the technology advancements in the aerospace sector and the increasing number of low-cost educational nanosatellite missions launched in low Earth orbits, it’s necessary to find solutions that enable communication between the ground and space segments. In order to occur the communication, it’s necessary that the antenna follows the satellite’s trajectory along the largest possible field of view. Therefore, this work proposes a conceptual design aimed to provide a solution for satellite tracking, so that the "tracker" is able to track a satellite in orbit in both azimuth and elevation. The design process revealed difficulties in finding appropriate components and, in some cases, custom components had to be designed to meet the objectives. Other challenges were faced in the interfaces between each subsystem, but technically feasible solutions were found and evaluated, whenever possible, based on design methodology theories, reaching the concept of the "tracker" product. Several aspects related to the project are presented and discussed, justifying the adopted solutions. The concept presented here proved to be feasible, assemblable and manufacturable, however, it still needs to be tested and further optimization of the mass and geometry of components can be done in later stages of the methodology, such as the preliminary and detailed design stages.