What does it take to point a spacecraft with only one thruster? In this episode, we dive into the engineering behind DeepSpace‑2’s gimbal system: a mechanical interface that enables directional control for our electric propulsion. GNC Engineer Emerson and Flight Software Engineer Kieran walk us through how they built the software, math, and lookup tables needed to command the gimbal, and why the complexity goes far deeper than just “move this motor.”
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What does it take to point a spacecraft with only one thruster? In this episode, we dive into the engineering behind DeepSpace‑2’s gimbal system: a mechanical interface that enables directional control for our electric propulsion. GNC Engineer Emerson and Flight Software Engineer Kieran walk us through how they built the software, math, and lookup tables needed to command the gimbal, and why the complexity goes far deeper than just “move this motor.”
In this episode, AstroForge RF Engineer Max and Software Engineer Christopher break down the brutal reality of deep space comms: high-gain antennas with beam widths under half a degree, 250 dB of path loss, FCC restrictions on uplink bands, and seconds-long delays that make real-time feedback impossible. They unpack what went wrong with Odin’s comms chain, what’s different on DeepSpace-2, and how we’re making our system more fault-tolerant without bloating mass or cost. From island-hopping to...
Roid Rage
What does it take to point a spacecraft with only one thruster? In this episode, we dive into the engineering behind DeepSpace‑2’s gimbal system: a mechanical interface that enables directional control for our electric propulsion. GNC Engineer Emerson and Flight Software Engineer Kieran walk us through how they built the software, math, and lookup tables needed to command the gimbal, and why the complexity goes far deeper than just “move this motor.”
