The Generic Nanosatellite Bus (GNB) is a spacecraft platform designed to accommodate the integration of diverse payloads in a common housing of supporting components. The development of the GNB at the Space Flight Laboratory (SFL) under the Canadian Advanced Nanospace eXperiment (CanX) program provides accelerated access to space while reducing non-recurring engineering (NRE) costs. The work presented herein details the development of the attitude determination and control subsystem (ADCS) of the GNB. Specific work on magnetorquer coil assembly, integration, and testing (AIT) and reaction wheel testing is included. The embedded software development and unit-level testing of the GNB sun sensors are discussed. The characterization of the AeroAstro star tracker is also a major focus, with procedures and results presented here. Hardware models were developed and incorporated into SFL's in-house high-fidelity attitude dynamics and control simulation environment. This work focuses on specific contributions to the CanX-3, CanX-4&5, and AISSat-1 nanosatellite missions.

The Generic Nanosatellite Bus (GNB) is a spacecraft platform designed to accommodate the integration of diverse payloads in a common housing of supporting components. The development of the GNB at the Space Flight Laboratory (SFL) under the Canadian Advanced Nanospace eXperiment (CanX) program provides accelerated access to space while reducing non-recurring engineering (NRE) costs. The work presented herein details the development of the attitude determination and control subsystem (ADCS) of the GNB. Specific work on magnetorquer coil assembly, integration, and testing (AIT) and reaction wheel testing is included. The embedded software development and unit-level testing of the GNB sun sensors are discussed. The characterization of the AeroAstro star tracker is also a major focus, with procedures and results presented here. Hardware models were developed and incorporated into SFL's in-house high-fidelity attitude dynamics and control simulation environment. This work focuses on specific contributions to the CanX-3, CanX-4&5, and AISSat-1 nanosatellite missions.