What are Cubesats? To answer that, let’s first define a U. A U is 10x10x10 cm cube of space from which cubesats derive their name. Cubesats are made up of multiples of these U’s put together and can have 1.33Kg of weight for every U in their structure. Cubesats can range from a simple 1U…
One Pendulum Less We’ve looked at the chaotic dynamics of double pendulums, but let’s take a moment to step back at the double pendulum’s simpler sibling, the single pendulum. This is the first post in a 3-part series looking at balancing an inverted pendulum Balancing an inverted pendulum – Part 1 Balancing an inverted pendulum…
Intro/Motivation One of the most common tasks in dynamics and controls is how do we get an object from point A to point B. Sometimes, like in the brachistochrone problem, we get lucky and there is a nice analytical solution. Unfortunately, in most situations, there is no closed form answer, and we need to turn…
Lissajous curves From orbits around Lagrange Points, to double pendulums, we often run into a family of loopy, beautiful, curves. These are called Lissajous curves, and describe complex harmonic motion. In layman terms, Lissajous curves appear when an object’s motion’s have two independent frequencies. Today, we’ll explore another system that produces Lissajous curves, a double…
