Project Versions

V0 → First Merritt Coil that Project Horizon began designing

• made to fit a 12U within the uniform field region found inside the cage

V1 → 1U sized Merritt Coil

• cheaper and smaller which allows it to fit on desk space (struggles with finding storage space for a fully setup V0 → currently V0 stored in pieces not all setup)
• harder to develop on + debug (ex: V0 was heavy and large and dragged across floor —> caused shorts in wires etc.); can give to diff ppl to work with more easily as well
• needed immediately for Pleiades-Atlas

Purpose/Need

When CubeSat’s are deployed in space, they often tumble and rotate. Many payloads (like our camera payload for Pleiades - Atlas) require stability or need to be able to point in a specific direction. For example, this is useful for pointing a camera at Earth or solar panels towards the sun for maximum efficiency. In smaller satellites, this is done by using magnetorquers which interact with the earths magnetic field to enact a torque on the satellite to rotate it (or in our case, to stop its rotation).

How do we test this on earth, though? The answer is a Merritt coil cage, which uses four large coils per axis (12 total) to create a controllable uniform magnetic field. Doing this allows us run a bunch of fun tests. We can:

• Simulate the magnetic field of the Earth in space
• Rotate the magnetic field around the satellite to simulate a tumbling satellite (which is especially useful for testing our magnetorquer algorithms!)
• Measure the torque that will be produced by our magnetometers in space
• And much more!

Design Summary [V0]

Sims:

• Merritt Coil Magnetic Field vs Position from Central Axis
• Original Driver Topology Sims

Structure:

• 1.5-ft length simulation cage design