Overview

The GNC on-boarding is a set of three problems you need to solve each separated into their own parts. The on-boarding is designed such that you don’t need to do tutorials to get started, as skills are developed in each part. There is a significant research component to this on-boarding, as you will need to search for concepts, definitions, and through MATLAB documentation.

Software Requirements

Make sure you have downloaded the following: MATLAB, Simulink, Aerospace Toolbox, Aerospace Blockset, Ephemeris Data for Aerospace Toolbox.

Submission Formatting

Formatting isn’t a huge deal as long as solutions are clear. You may choose to combine all the parts in a single Simulink file (with the MATLAB part of Part 1 in a MATLAB block), or do everything in separate files.

Submit the files to Dhruv or Jeff via Discord.

Important Notes [PLEASE READ]

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Do not worry about trying to get a solution that is perfect for parts 2 and 3. Good enough solutions with the correct general idea will be accepted. In the past most people have submitted incorrect solutions which had the correct general idea.

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The on-boarding should not take a long time. The leads do not want you to spend large amounts of time on the on-boarding, but if you really want to go ahead. If you find yourself spending more than a few hours on this, I recommend just submitting what you have done to a lead, instead of spending lot of time on the on-boarding.

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Part 1

Determine the dot product of the vectors [1,1,3] and [1,1,2] in two different ways. Once using only Matlab, and another time using only Simulink.

• Quick Search Tip: Double clicking on an empty spot on Simulink opens a search box. You can immediately start typing out the name of the block you are looking for. Then with your mouse click on the label with the block that you want to use.

Part 2

Using Simulink, determine if the sun is visible to a satellite orbiting the Earth.

The model must meet the following specifications:

• The orbit of the satellite must be simulated using the Orbit Propagator block from the Aerospace Blockset. It doesn’t matter what type of propagation is used.
• The satellite orbits on the equatorial plane at an altitude of 400km above the surface, and is over the prime meridian at 2020 January 1st at 12:00 UTC.
• Use a scope block to output if the sun is visible to the satellite or not, with 1 representing the sun is visible and 0 representing the sun is not visible.
• The “Eclipse Shadow Model” block may not be used in the solution. It may be useful to verify results, however.