Most compact, low power, high control reaction wheel yet

Compact reaction wheels for CubeSats have been under development for many years.

GSTP, along with KU Leuven, Belgium, have, through the de-risk Framework, developed and tested three new technologies that should improve performance and  result in more accurate control over the reaction wheel’s speed.

The resulting wheel will mean CubeSat missions of the future will be able to manage the expected stricter pointing requirements of yet-to-come missions easily.

The three technologies were intended to increase the momentum capacity and torque of the reaction wheel, over power consumption and to significantly improve the speed measurement and control.

The activity resulted in two custom built reaction wheel motors, where the reaction wheel flywheel acts as the rotor. Both prototypes were functional but the second prototype showed significantly higher power efficiency than existing compact reaction wheels.

Two high resolution sensor solutions were selected, implemented and tested. The sensors can be fit in an integrated reaction wheel and have speed measurement accuracy below 1 RPM. The activity also developed a reaction wheel speed control loop that greatly improves performance in either steady states or with disturbances.

The new technology will help to deliver high accuracy pointing for compact, low-cost missions such as CubeSats, with a  wheel that required less power, yet allows for higher controllability.

4000127233 was completed at the end of 2020.