CubeSats are becoming increasingly popular in the scientific community. While they provide a whole new range of opportunities for space exploration, they also come with their own challenges. One of the main concerns is the negative impact which they can have in the space debris problem. Commonly lacking from attitude determination and propulsion capabilities, it has been difficult to provide CubeSats with means for active deorbiting. While electric propulsion technology has been emerging for its application in CubeSats, little or no literature is available on methods to enable it to be used for deorbiting purposes, especially within the tight constraints faced by these nanosatellites. We present a new and simple algorithm for CubeSat deorbiting, which proposes the use of novel electric propulsion technology with minimum sensing and actuation capabilities. The algorithm is divided into two stages: a spin-stabilization control; and a deorbiting-phase detection. The spin-stabilization control is inspired by the B-dot controller. It does not require gyroscopes, but only requires magnetometers and magnetorquers as sensors and actuators, respectively. The deorbiting-phase detection is activated once the satellite is spin-stabilized. The algorithm can be easily implementable as it does not require any attitude information other than the orbital information, e.g., from the Global Positioning System receiver, which could be easily installed in CubeSats. The effectiveness of each part of the algorithms is validated through numerical simulations. The proposed algorithms outperform the existing approaches such as deorbiting sails, inflatable structures, and electrodynamic tethers in terms of deorbiting times. Stability and robustness analysis are also provided. The proposed algorithm is ready to be implemented with minimal effort and provides a robust solution to the space junk mitigation efforts.

中文翻译：

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立方体卫星的无陀螺自旋稳定控制器和离轨算法

立方体卫星在科学界越来越受欢迎。虽然它们为太空探索提供了一系列全新的机会，但它们也带来了自己的挑战。主要关切之一是它们可能对空间碎片问题产生负面影响。通常缺乏姿态确定和推进能力，很难为立方体卫星提供主动离轨的手段。虽然电力推进技术在立方体卫星中的应用不断涌现，但很少或没有关于使其用于离轨目的的方法的文献，特别是在这些纳米卫星面临的严格限制内。我们提出了一种新的、简单的 CubeSat 脱轨算法，它建议使用具有最小传感和驱动能力的新型电力推进技术。该算法分为两个阶段：自旋稳定控制；和脱轨相位检测。自旋稳定控制的灵感来自 B-dot 控制器。它不需要陀螺仪，只需要磁力计和磁矩器分别作为传感器和执行器。一旦卫星自旋稳定，就会激活离轨相位检测。该算法很容易实现，因为它不需要轨道信息以外的任何姿态信息，例如来自全球定位系统接收器，它可以很容易地安装在立方体卫星中。通过数值模拟验证了算法各部分的有效性。所提出的算法在脱轨时间方面优于现有方法，例如脱轨帆、充气结构和电动系绳。还提供稳定性和稳健性分析。所提出的算法已准备好以最少的努力实现，并为减少太空垃圾的努力提供了一个强大的解决方案。