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posted by n1 on Thursday July 28 2016, @03:02AM   Printer-friendly
from the spinning-in-space-in-space dept.

A story from Engadget reports:

Satellites often rely on reaction wheels, or constantly spinning flywheels, to tweak their attitudes without using precious fuel. However, they tend to be very delicate -- since they use ball bearings, they spin relatively slowly (under 6,000RPM), take up a lot of space, need tightly controlled environments and aren't very precise. Thankfully, researchers at Celeroton have a better way. They've created a magnetically levitated motor that achieves the effect of a regular reaction wheel with virtually none of the drawbacks. Since its rotor floats in a magnetic field, it can spin much faster (up to 150,000RPM) without wearing out, creating vibrations or requiring a special, lubricated environment. And given that it produces the same angular momentum as a much larger reaction wheel, it's perfect for CubeSats and any other tiny satellite where internal space is at a premium.

The motor is only a prototype at the moment, and it'll take a while before there's something commercially viable. However, multiple potential partners (including the European Space Agency) are reportedly interested. You may well see production satellites that can always adjust their positions, which might keep them useful well after conventional orbiters break down and become space junk.


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  • (Score: 3, Disagree) by korger on Thursday July 28 2016, @06:29AM

    by korger (4465) on Thursday July 28 2016, @06:29AM (#381077)

    Satellites often rely on reaction wheels, or constantly spinning flywheels, to tweak their attitudes without using precious fuel.

    It's altitudes, not attitudes. Unless satellites have grown sentient while I wasn't looking.

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  • (Score: 5, Informative) by Immerman on Thursday July 28 2016, @07:03AM

    by Immerman (3985) on Thursday July 28 2016, @07:03AM (#381089)

    No, they have it right. Altitude is positional, and thus not something a gyroscope can modify at all.

    Attitude control is controlling the orientation of an object with respect to an inertial frame of reference or another entity

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attitude_control [wikipedia.org]

    • (Score: 3, Touché) by korger on Thursday July 28 2016, @07:57AM

      by korger (4465) on Thursday July 28 2016, @07:57AM (#381099)

      OK, thanks. Now I can be a smartass and tell people "Is your gyroscope broken or what?! Cause you have a serious attitude problem!"

      • (Score: 2) by Bot on Thursday July 28 2016, @02:40PM

        by Bot (3902) on Thursday July 28 2016, @02:40PM (#381204) Journal

        I was going to express my reaction to your attitude about the reaction at your attitude joke on reaction wheels, but I'd like to avoid stack overflows.

        --
        Account abandoned.