Dr. Stefano Carletta

Guidance and control systems for satellites and rockets

The research on guidance and attitude control systems addresses solutions for small satellites, including: (i) the design of magnetic ADCS for nano-/micro-satellites, (ii) the development of autonomous optimal guidance and control schemes for lunar landing, (iii) the design of an attitude control and desaturation scheme for 6U CubeSats for deep space exploration (i.e. developed at Morehead State University for possible application to the Lunar Ice Cube mission), (iv) the design of actuators for VLEO station-keeping and satellite formation-flying based on field emitter array and superconductors, (v) the development and validation (from flight data of the 6P PocketQube STECCO) of an attitude determination model based on satellite laser ranging, (vi) the implementation and validation of modulation schemes of reduced attitude control for orbit injection, and (vii) the development of a position-based accurate single-sensor attitude determination system to be patented.

For suitable cases, ADCS were tested experimentally on-ground using a Helmholtz Cage + Air Bearing facility which allows recreating the microgravity and magnetic conditions experienced in orbit and includes testbeds equivalent to 3U/6U/12U CubeSats equipped with space-qualified hardware (on-board computer, magnetic actuators, attitude sensors, telecommunication system). The testbeds can be programmed with desired ADCS algorithms to evaluate their effectiveness and performance in a relevant environment before the mission.

The facility is currently available at the Flight Mechamics Lab of the School of Aerospace Engieering and has been used to: (a) validate an active ADCS of the 12U CubeSat ARAMIS, (b) characterize the hysteresis magnets and validate the performance of the passive magnetic systems of the 3U AstroBio CubeSat, (c) characterize an innovative viscous spin-damper and (d) validate the magnetometer-only attitude determination algorithm designed for the 6P PocketQube STECCO.

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Publications

Carletta S., Teofilatto P., Design and development of a full 5-DOF testbed for testing nanosatellites formation flying, rendezvous and proximity operations, Proceedings 9th International Workshop on Satellite Constellations and Formation Fyling, 19-21 June 2017, Boulder (CO), USA.
Carletta S., Teofilatto P., Design and Numerical Validation of an Algorithm for the Detumbling and Angular Rate Determination of a CubeSat Using Only Three-Axis Magnetometer Data, International Journal of Aerospace Engineering, 2018.
Farissi M.S., Carletta S., Nascetti A., Design and Hardware-in-the-Loop Test of an Active Magnetic Detumbling and Pointing Control based only on Three-Axis Magnetometer Data, Proceedings of the 70th international astronautical congress (IAC), 21-25 October 2019, Washington, USA.
Farissi M.S., Carletta S., Nascetti A., Teofilatto P., Implementation and hardware-in-the-loop simulation of a magnetic detumbling and pointing control based on three-axis magnetometer data, Aerospace MDPI, 6(12), 133, 2019.
Carletta S., Deorbiting of microsatellites using compact electromagnetic actuators for space debtis mitigation, IAA Italian Regional Symposium of Space Debris Observations from Basilicata Castelgrande (PZ), Italy, 2019.
Carletta S., Teofilatto P., Farissi M.S., A magnetometer-only attitude determination strategy for small satellites: Design of the algorithm and hardware-in-the-loop testing, Aerospace MDPI, 7(1), 3, 2020.
Carletta S., Matadha S.S.G., Ramesh S.V., Iannascoli L., Paglialunga D., Nascetti A., Schirone, L., Implementation and testing of a passive magnetic attitude control system for the 3U AstroBio CubeSat orbiting in the Van Allen belt, Proceedings of the 72nd International Astronautical Congress, 2021, 25-29 October, Dubai, UAE.
Carletta S., Sparvieri N., Graziani F., Characterization of a flux-pinning interface for the control of nanosatellites in very close proximity, Proceedings of the 73rd International Astronautical Congress, 2022, 18-22 September, Paris, France.
Carletta S., Nascetti A., Gosikere Matadha S.S., Iannascoli L., Baratto de Albuquerque T., Maipan Davis, N., Schirone L., Impresario G., Pirrotta S., Brucato J.R., Characterization and testing of the passive magnetic attitude control system for the 3U AstroBio CubeSat, Aerospace, 9(11), 2022.
Pontani M., Pianalto A., Carletta S., Teofilatto P., Near-optimal guidance and pulse-modulated reduced-attitude control for orbit injection, In: Fasano G.; Pintér J.D. (eds) Modeling and Optimization in Space Engineering. Springer Optimization and its Applications, 200, 2023, 301-329, Springer, Cham.
Leonardi E.M., Pontani M., Carletta S., Teofilatto P., Low-Thrust Nonlinear Orbit Control for Very Low Lunar Orbits, Applied Sciences, 14(5), 2024.
Carletta S., Farissi M.S., Real-time attitude control for optimal low-thrust multi-revolution coplanar transfers, Proceedings of the 75th International Astronautical Congress, 2024, 14-18 October, Milan, Italy.

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