Digital Commons Network^™

The Critical Role Of Cubesat Spacecraft In A Multi-Tier Mission For Mars Exploration, Jeremy Straub

Jeremy Straub

A multi-tier architecture is under development (with similar craft heterogeneity to Fink's work on ‘tier scalable’ missions) which will facilitate autonomous local control of multiple heterogeneous craft. This mission architecture has been developed with a Mars mission in mind and has included CubeSats in a variety of critical mission roles.

Two concepts will be presented: the addition of CubeSats to a larger-scale multi-tier mission, where the CubeSats serve a supporting role and a mission driven by CubeSat orbital capabilities. In the first, CubeSats are utilized to augment the area of spatial coverage that can be obtained and the temporal coverage …

Assessment Of Educational Expectations, Outcomes And Benefits From Small Satellite Program Participation, Jeremy Straub, Ronald Marsh

Jeremy Straub

This paper begins to characterize the educational outcomes that can be produced from student participation in a small spacecraft development program. We asked students what benefits they expected to receive from program participation and we asked them, at the end of the semester, what benefits they had received. We also characterized student performance through the use of post-participation Likert-like scale questions and the use of a widely-used questionnaire for assessing student research participation outcomes. We compare benefit expectation and attainment, characterize the level of benefits received across multiple types of participation and assess the effect of program participation on subject-specific …

A Variety Of Configurations For Incorporating Actuation Components Into The Structural Members Of A Cubesat, Jeremy Straub

Jeremy Straub

This paper describes the volume and mass challenges faced by designers utilizing the CubeSat form factor. It has considers the need to more effectively utilize the corner-spaces of the CubeSat, particularly when there is a need to incorporate narrow and long structures. It discusses several prospective approaches for incorporating long and narrow structures into a CubeSat and considers the prospective value of doing so.

A Novel Deployable Array Architecture For Micro To Full Sized Satellites, Benjamin Kading, Jeremy Straub, David Whalen

Jeremy Straub

This paper provides an overview of several techniques that can be used on spacecraft of various sizes to increase the longevity of onboard solar power generation capability and – in some cases – via this, overall mission life. Three designs that shield solar panels until they are needed for use and which can, prospectively, provide other benefits are presented. A conventional design is also discussed, for purposes of comparison. Mass and volume analysis is used to demonstrate the cost (in terms of mass and volume) for the proposed solutions and compare this to the benefit provided by the extension in …

The Differences Are Not So Great: High Altitude Balloon And Small Spacecraft Software Development, Jeremy Straub, Ronald Marsh

Jeremy Straub

Previous work discussed critical differences in planning, developing hardware for and executing a high altitude balloon (HAB) mission. One area where this difference is less pronounced is in software development, allowing HABs to be utilized as a ‘software testbed’ for many orbital missions. This paper provides an overview of the software development process for both orbital and HAB craft, highlighting differences between the two processes and the numerous similarities. It concludes by presenting a framework for analyzing the suitability of HAB testing for small satellite software.

Constraint Satisfaction Problem: A Generic Scheduler, Ben Carpenter, Brent Weichel, Jeremy Straub, Eunjin Kim

Jeremy Straub

The task was to create a scheduler that would create a schedule that gets as many of the tasks done as possible while maximizing the total value of the tasks performed. Each task was assigned a value, a priority, and a duration. Each task also had certain times that they could be run, so they couldn’t just be run at any point where they fit. We decided that in order to get a more accurate ordering for the process, we would take the value divided by the duration that way we were less likely to skip over processes that ran …

Dynamic Task Scheduling Problem: Greedy Knapsack Solution, Christian Sandtveit, Darrin Winger, Jeremy Straub, Eunjin Kim

Jeremy Straub

The problem that we worked with was a dynamic scheduling problem. For this problem, we are given a set of tasks to be scheduled in an allotted time slot, so that the total value of the tasks done is maximized. Each task has a duration, value. Each task also has one or more periods in which they can be scheduled. Some tasks can have conflicting time slots that can prevent other tasks from being scheduled. As tasks are assigned time slots it is possible to prevent other tasks from being as-signed a time slot. Looking for ways to minimize the …

Medical Rate Setting: Multi-Curve Approximation And Projection, Darrin Winger, Christian Sandtveit, Jeremy Straub, Eunjin Kim

Jeremy Straub

In order to maximize profit, our approach was to maximize the difference between total revenue and total cost, where total revenue would be larger than total cost. In the problem we are given a series of points, which relates price, cost, profit and quantity. We can calculate the total revenue by multi-plying the price with quantity, and the total cost by multiplying the cost with the quantity. Total profit is calculated by multiplying profit and quantity. We are given 4 initial points, and based on those 4 points we will calculate the point where the profit is currently maximized. Based …

Task Scheduling Problem: Using The Most Constrained Variable Algorithm To Maximize, Jaeden Lovin, Calvin Bina, Jeremy Straub, Eunjin Kim

Jeremy Straub

For this constraint satisfaction problem we needed to schedule a series of tasks to run in a certain order. Each task has a set duration that it must run for and a domain of times during which it can run during. Each task had a value and the goal of the problem was to pick times for the tasks to run in or-der to maximize the total value. We thought of multiple ways to potentially approach this problem, and decided to use some form of the least constraining variable. We would choose the task with the least constraints on other …

Medical Rate Setting Problem: Using The Hill-Climbing Search To Maximize Health Care Provider Profit, Calvin Bina, Jaeden Lovin, Jeremy Straub, Eunjin Kim

Jeremy Straub

Our program for calculating the optimal price for a service is relatively simple, but it gets great results. We make use of quadratic regres-sion. Quadratic regression has a very similar concept to linear regression. Given a set of data points, we find the equation that is the best fit to represent those data points. With linear re-gression, our resulting equation is linear. How-ever, with quadratic regression, our end result is a quadratic equation. We have two quadratic equations to come up with. One is our cost function and the other is our units sold func-tion. Both of these equations are …

Towards An Analytical Framework For Evaluating Student Learning In Computer Science Courses, Jeremy Straub, Tom Stokke, Scott Kerlin

Jeremy Straub

This poster presents an overview of ongoing work in the Computer Science Department to assess the learning oc-curring in multiple undergraduate courses in an analytical manner which will facilitate semester-to-semester and in-stitution-to-institution comparisons. It describes the types of assessments created (which are course-specific based on ACM model content areas identified as covered by the instructor), their use, data analysis and the conclu-sions which can be drawn. Limited initial data is also pre-sented.

Educational Benefits To Participants In Small Spacecraft Development, Jeremy Straub

Jeremy Straub

A key focus of the OpenOrbiter project has been identifying possible sources of educational benefit to student participants and ascertaining whether they have been received. To this end, we’ve asked participants what benefits they hope to attain, determined whether they attained them and measured increases in skills and abilities over the period of participation in the project. This poster provides an overview of all of the educational evaluation work performed to-date with regards to the OpenOrbiter project. It considers both the benefit of the particular project as well as the benefits of small spacecraft development work, in general, across a …

The Development Of A Nanosatellite-Class Sunsat At The University Of North Dakota, Corey Bergsrud, Jeremy Straub, Robert Bernaciak, Subin Shahukhal, Benjamin Kading, Karl Williams, Hossein Salehfar, Johnathan Mcclure, James Casler, David Whalen, Elizabeth Becker, Sima Noghanian

Jeremy Straub

This poster presents the details of work on the SunSat spacecraft design initiative at the University of North Dakota. This project seeks to advance technologies1 and to increase public awareness of Space Solar Power based via visualization, science and engineering work. It will also focus on the development and demonstration of a workable solution and consider the economic benefits2 that the proposed (and alternate) solutions may generate. This poster details the design project which will construct a transmitting Nano Space Solar Power Satellite (NSSPS) and a power reception satellite for a space-to-space Microwave Wireless Power (MWP) demonstration. The SmallSatstyle spacecraft4, …

Extending The Orbital Services Model Beyond Computing, Communications And Sensing, Jeremy Straub

Jeremy Straub

An orbital services model has previously been proposed which is conceptualized in terms of providing orbital services related to a remote sensing mission, typical of a sensornet (e.g., computing, communications and sensing services). This model, however, can be extended to support additional services provided in the orbital environment, which could become available in the near to mid-term future. Examples of these services include power (such as might be provided by a solar power satellite), physical servicing (such as described by the DARPA Phoenix project and others), orbital maneuvering or raising and actuation of other remote craft capabilities.

This paper considers …

The Use Of 3d Printing To Enable High Altitude Balloon Missions, Jeremy Straub

Jeremy Straub

The 3D printing technology allows the low-cost creation of structures based on user-defined configuration parameters. Unlike other plastic-forming technologies, there is no tooling cost related to the creation of a mold. Because of this, highly-customized structures can be created with a minimum production quantity of one, allowing adaptation to individual mission needs (for a single-HAB mission) or the change of the structure across a multi-unit run (e.g., to test various configurations or as part of a study requiring multiple payloads with different configurations).

This paper considers the mission possibilities enabled by the use of 3D printing for HAB structures. These …

Openorbiter Small Spacecraft Development Program Educational Benefits, Jeremy Straub

Jeremy Straub

No abstract provided.