| dc.description.abstract | A Cold Gas Thruster System is developed for the de-spin attitute control of the re-entry capsule in Sounding Rocket 8 Project with commercial off the shelf (COTS) components. Its thrust performance is confirmed by bench and suspended spinning tests.
The system is controlled by a Micro Controller Unit (MCU) to punch open the high pressure cold gas canister, to measure the gas line pressure and system temperature, to control the thrust on and off by the solenoid valve to de-spin the re-entry capsule. The real-time control software is developed on our proprietary Lookup Table Operating System (LUTOS). And the pneumatic system consists of the high-pressure gas canister, regulator valve, absolute gas line pressure gauge, solenoid valve, gas lines, nozzles, and fittings.
The magnitude and timing performance of the thrust is measured by libra balance scale and load cell. With the regulator valve set at 135psia by the manufacturer, the actual secondary side gas line pressure measured is 145psia, 0.4N thrust force can be achieved at 1 atmosphere environment (equivalently, 2.66N in high altitude vacuum), and, therefore, 0.72(N*m) de-spin torque. Hanging the re-entry capsule on a spinning bearing, the angular deceleration of 70deg/sec^2 can be achieved. In the suspended spinning test, the data telemetry is carried out by the wireless module, while the angular velocity of the spinning is measured by the G & G (G-Accelerometer & Gyroscope) module. The tests verify the effectiveness of the system for the de-spin flight test. | en_US |