Engineering Commons^™

Scheduling For A Small Satellite For Remote Sensed Data Collection, Donovan Torgerson, Christoffer Korvalnd, Jeremy Straub, Ronald Marsh

Jeremy Straub

Small satellites, such as CubeSats, serve as excellent platforms for the collection of data that can be supplied to a geographic information system. To serve this need, they require a robust and lightweight task scheduler due to their limited onboard power production capabilities as well as internal space restrictions. Because of these constraints, schedules must be optimized; however, the scheduling optimization process must be performed using limited processing (CPU) power.

Several considerations must be taken into account in order to make a scheduler for these systems. This poster highlights requirements such as inter-dependency of onboard systems, and limited windows of …

Roofsat: Teaching Students Skills For Software Development For Gis Data Collection And Other Activities, Jeremy Straub, Ronald Marsh, Donovan Torgerson, Christoffer Korvald

Jeremy Straub

Small Spacecraft provide an excellent platform for the collection of geospatial data. In order to enable the low-cost creation of small remote sensing space-craft in a university environment, a training pathway for students is required. The Realistic Operational Ob-ject for Facilitating Software Assessment and Testing (RoofSat) serves to provide students with experience developing software for a small satellite platform typi-cal of those used for remote sensing missions. It al-lows software to be tested with hardware that re-sponds in a similar manner to that found on the satel-lite for a fraction of the cost of development. This poster details the goals …

Educational Outcomes From The Openorbiter Small Spacecraft Development Program, Jeremy Straub

Jeremy Straub

The OpenOrbiter program [1] is developing a low-cost framework for the creation of space-craft by researchers and educators worldwide [8]. In addition to the technical objectives, ed-ucational assessment [2, 3] has also been a key focus. Students working on development of the spacecraft [4] were asked what types of benefits they sought from their participation [5]. The assessment of the attainment of these benefits is ongoing, in conjunction with continued development in pursuit of the crea-tion of a set of designs that can be used to build a spacecraft with a cost of under $5,000 [13] .

Openorbiter Ground Station Software, Alexander Lewis, Jacob Huhn, Jeremy Straub, Travis Desell, Scott Kerlin

Jeremy Straub

OpenOrbiter is a student project at the University of North Dakota to design and build a low cost1 and open-hardware / open-source software CubeSat2. The Ground Station is the user interface for operators of the satellite. The ground station software must manage spacecraft communications, track its orbital location , manage task assignment, provide security and retrieve the data from the spacecraft. This will be presented via a graphical user interface that allows a user to easily perform these tasks.

Testing And Integration Team Project Management, Tyler Leben, Jeremy Straub, Scott Kerlin

Jeremy Straub

The Testing and Integration Team plays an integral role in the development of the open source CubeSat known as Open Orbiter. Like any project, the Testing Team’s project can benefit from structure and management to effectively utilize it’s time and resources. CSCI 297 teaches the skills needed to turn a good idea into successful endeavor. By applying skills such as effective planning, setting milestones, dealing with changes and supervising to an actual project, Open Orbiter has transformed from a pipe dream to a real, obtainable goal. Doing this has turned learning about project management into more that just power points …

Openorbiter Payload Software, Tim Whitney, Kyle Goehner, Jeremy Straub, Scott Kerlin

Jeremy Straub

The Payload Software team is responsible for developing the image processing and task decomposition systems on the Open Orbiter satellite1. The image processing software performs operations to enhance the quality of the images collected by the onboard camera, specifically, mosaicking, which takes multiple images and stitches them together to make a larger image and super resolution, which takes multiple low resolution images of the same area to produce a higher resolution image2,3,4. The task decomposition part of the system decomposes tasks defined by the user into jobs that then get sent to the operating system to be performed. This system …

Openorbiter Combined Software Work Breakdown Structure, Jeremy Straub, Timothy Whitney, Tyler Leben, Kelton Karboviak, Zach Maguire, Christoffer Korvald, Scott Kerlin

Jeremy Straub

As part of CSCI 297, students created work breakdown structures for different areas of the OpenOrbiter project’s software groups. In CSCI 207, they learned about all aspects of project management via experiential learning. They acted as project management ‘consultants’ to the OpenOrbiter software teams. To facilitate the creation of the work breakdown structures, they interviewed team leads, attended team meetings and discussed current progress and needs with members of the teams. In some cases, they collected additional information from reference sources and/or spoke with other teams which would be the ‘customer’ of a particular area of the software system. These …

Work On A Software Defined Radio (Sdr) For A Cubesat-Class Spacecraft, Michael Wegerson, Jeremy Straub, Sima Noghanian

Jeremy Straub

A Software Defined Radio (SDR) will be used for OpenOrbit-er satellite to ground communications. The use of SDR al-lows for a smaller, more versatile radio then what a stand-ard hardware radio can provide; perfect for the unpredicta-ble environment Open Orbiter will be exposed to. Current implementation uses a simple $20 USB TV decoder for the receiver and the open-source program GNU Radio for soft-ware decoding. Broadband FM transmissions have been re-ceived and decoded successfully and on-going experimen-tation for receiving satellite communications are yielding promising results.

Project Management For The Openorbiter Operating Software Team, Kelton Karboviak, Dayln Limesand, Michael Hlas, Eric Berg, Christoffer Korvald, Jeremy Straub, Ronald Marsh, Scott Kerlin

Jeremy Straub

OpenOrbiter is producing a 1-U CubeSat spacecraft1 to facilitate the construction of low-cost2 spacecraft by others in the future. The Operating Software team is in charge of designing and creating the software that controls most of the CubeSat’s operations such as image capturing, storage management, and temperature sensing. The project management deliverables that we have worked on as a team are the Project Definition, Work Breakdown Structure, and the Project Schedule. The Project Definition defines exactly what our project team will be developing including, but not limited to, what the team is in charge of developing, what its not in …

Ground Station Software Team Project Management, Zach Maguire, Marshall Mattingly, Christoffer Korvald, Jeremy Straub, Scott Kerlin

Jeremy Straub

In CSCI 297 class we partake in learning the roles of software team leads and developers. With hands on activities that get us involved in what a real manager of a software team may do such as: defining a project, planning a project, developing a work breakdown structure, estimating the work, developing a project schedule, etc. This work is performed in the context of the OpenOrbiter project which seeks to build a low-cost spacecraft1 that can be produced with a parts budget of approxi-mately $5,0002 by schools worldwide. The ground station software team’s purpose within Open Orbiter project is to …

Software For Openorbiter, Christoffer Korvald, Jeremy Straub, Scott Kerlin, Ronald Marsh

Jeremy Straub

The software development effort for the OpenOrbiter project consists of four teams: operating software development, payload software development, ground station software development and testing. These teams are designing and developing the software required to create a turn-key spacecraft design1 which can be produced at a price point of under USD $5,000 by faculty, students and researchers world-wide2. Through this process, students are gaining valuable real-world experience3,4 in areas of indicated interest5. Each team is headed by a team lead who is responsible for conducting weekly meetings and organizing the activities of the team. During the Fall, 2013 semester, team leads …

Increasing National Space Engineering Productivity And Educational Opportunities Via Intrepreneurship, Entrepreneurship And Innovation, Jeremy Straub

Jeremy Straub

Research and educational efforts related to space engineering or requiring access to space face significant startup costs. The cost of developing a 1-U (10 cm × 10 cm × 11 cm) CubeSat from scratch can be approximately $250,000. Those buying a kit must pay amortized vendor development costs on a per-mission basis, creating a lower per-mission barrier. Kit users are also constrained by being unable to make changes to vendor subsystems without incurring substantial redevelopment costs or vendor charges. The Open Prototype for Educational NanoSats (OPEN) is changing this by providing freely available design documents for a 1-U CubeSat class …

Payload Software Design And Development For A Remote Sensing Small Spacecraft, Kyle Goehner, Christoffer Korvald, Jeremy Straub, Ronald Marsh

Jeremy Straub

Scheduling for a Small Satellite for Remote Sensed Data Collection

A Curriculum-Integrated Small Spacecraft Program For Interdisciplinary Education, Jeremy Straub, Anders Nervold, Josh Berk

Jeremy Straub

Space generates inspiration, aspiration, and passion in many students, traits that are often lacking in the traditional college classroom. By utilizing a meaningful space project with a tangible product, which serves a valuable purpose in the curriculum, instructors can generate passion in their students with regards to the topics being explored. Additionally, it can fuel interest in aerospace science and commerce, guiding more students towards valuable STEM degrees and job opportunities, which can lead to future growth and fresh blood in the aging aerospace employee pool.

OpenOrbiter is a student-run research project at the University of North Dakota that can …

Interplanetary Hitchhiking To Support Small Spacecraft Missions Beyond Earth Orbit, Donovan Torgerson, Anders Nervold, Jeremy Straub, Josh Berk, Ronald Marsh, Scott Kerlin

Jeremy Straub

The development of small spacecraft in educational institutions has traditionally been hampered by the high costs and integration complexities of launches. NASA’s Educational Launch of Nanosatellites program (ELaNa), kick started the concept of hitchhiking for free on a rocket launch to low-Earth or geostationary orbit. An ELaNa launch is typically provided by grouping multiple educational nanosatellites together in a rocket that is already carrying a larger and more expensive primary payload. In essence, providing the nanosats with a free hitchhike to space. The program promotes research and education by giving participants first-hand experience in spacecraft design and development.

Although the …

Application Of Collaborative Autonomous Control And The Open Prototype For Educational Nanosats Framework To Enable Orbital Capabilities For Developing Nations, Jeremy Straub, Josh Berk, Anders Nervold, Christoffer Korvald, Donovan Torgerson

Jeremy Straub

Prosperous nations enjoy the benefits of orbital remote sensing data products. The spacecraft that provide this imagery are, predominately, large and expensive, placing them out of reach of most small or developing nations. Small spacecraft, however, represent a new paradigm for remote sensing applications. A cluster of small spacecraft can be used to capture imagery which can be super-resolved to rival the performance of larger and significantly more expensive spacecraft (compared to the whole small spacecraft constellation). Alternately, the group can be spaced to provide higher temporal coverage. This paper presents work on three synergistic topics. First, it covers work …

Orbital Position, Transmission Path And Spacecraft Attitude Determination For A Solar Power Spacecraft, Jeremy Straub, Corey Bergsrud

Jeremy Straub

A constellation of solar power spacecraft (SPS) to provide power to orbital assets or ground locations (on Earth or another planet) requires software to determine what the most efficient configuration of the spacecraft is (to service all required clients with the required service level) and how to achieve this configuration.

This paper presents an algorithm for attitude control and constellation design and implementation for these spacecraft. This algorithm makes trade-offs between servicing multiple (possibly conflicting) orbital consumer needs, attitude change costs and constellation sustainability. The paper concludes by considering the processing requirements imposed on the spacecraft by this software, across …

Business Case For A Constellation Of 6u Solar Powered Cubesats In Leo, Corey Bergsrud, Jeremy Straub, Matthew Clausing, Johnathan Mcclure, James Casler, Sima Noghanian

Jeremy Straub

This paper presents a business case for launching a constellation of 6U Solar Power CubeSats (SPCS) to low-Earth orbit (LEO) to provide power to other spacecraft. This approach may prove economically feasible as a business endeavor, as it allows power to be transmitted in a high-density manner via microwave frequencies reducing the collection surface area required on the consumer spacecraft significantly and reducing the requirement for energy storage.

Several 6U SPCS units can target their energy streams to form a swath of energy to provide an increased aggregate level of power transfer to a particular craft as it flies though …

The Road To A Space Solar Power Cubesat In North Dakota, Corey Bergsrud, Jeremy Straub, Sima Noghanian

Jeremy Straub

Presents current work at the University of North Dakota related to the long-term development of a Solar Power Satellite (SPS).

Constructing A Constellation Of 6u Solar Power Cube Satellites, Corey Bergsrud, Jeremy Straub, Matthew Clausing, Johnathan Mcclure, Sima Noghanian

Jeremy Straub

The development of a constellation of 6U CubeSats is proposed to collect solar power in space and utilize it to power other spacecraft through space-to-space microwave wireless power transmission (MWPT). This allows power generation capabilities to be moved from being on-board each consumer craft to a centralized collection of nodes that can be replaced, as needed, as their solar cells efficiency diminishes overtime (or craft fail, etc.). This paper presents an overview of a 6U Solar Power CubeSat (SPCS) with deployable solar panels for use in low-Earth orbit (LEO). The capabilities of the spacecraft are detailed as are several prospective …

Openorbiter: Analysis Of A Student-Run Space Program, Jeremy Straub

Jeremy Straub

Students at the University of North Dakota, as part of faculty-mentored teams in a student-lead program, are working to broaden participation in humanity's exploration of space. The OpenOrbiter Small Spacecraft Development Initiative (OSSDI) is demonstrating two complementary paradigm-changers. First, the initiative facilitates student involvement in all aspects of a space program, without the preconceptions present in established space activities. Second, it is demonstrating a low-cost framework for small spacecraft development. These combined activities are poised to demonstrate a new way forward for space exploration: combined, they allow risk-taking exuberance and a cost of entry that makes risk-taking exuberance acceptable, even …

Enabling Interplanetary Small Spacecraft Science Missions With Model Based Data Analysis, Jeremy Straub

Jeremy Straub

Small spacecraft operating outside of Earth orbit are significantly constrained by the communica- tions link available to them. This is particularly true for stand-alone craft that must rely on their own antenna and transmission systems (for which gain and available power generation are limited by form factor); it is also applicable to ‘hitchhiker’-style missions which may be able to utilize (quite likely very limited amounts of) time on the primary spacecraft’s communications equip- ment for long-haul transmission.

This poster presents the adaptation of the Model-Based Transmission Reduction (MBTR) frame- work’s Model-Based Data Analysis (MBDA) component for use on an interplanetary …

Open Beyond Orbit: Using The Designs From The Open Prototype For Educational Nanosats Outside Of Earth Orbit, Jeremy Straub

Jeremy Straub

This paper presents an overview of the Open Prototype for Educational NanoSats (OPEN) and its prospective use in interplanetary missions. OPEN is framework to facilitate the low-cost creation of CubeSat-class spacecraft via using publically available (provided by the OPEN project) de- signs, software, fabrication instructions and test plans. The base open configuration is designed to be able to be produced with a parts budget of under $5,000. Despite this low cost, it is a very ro- bust spacecraft (with capabilities meeting or exceeding many of the vendor-kit solutions which cost eight-or-more times this amount).

Two approaches for using the OPEN …

A Review Of Online Collaboration Tools Used By The Und Openorbiter Program, Jeremy Straub, Christoffer Korvald

Jeremy Straub

The OpenOrbiter program at the University of North Dakota is a student-initiated, student-run effort to design, develop, test, launch and operate a CubeSat-class spacecraft to validate the designs of the Open Prototype for Educational NanoSatellites (a framework that will be made publically-available to allow faster and lower-cost missions at other educational institutions worldwide). OpenOrbiter involves (at various participation levels) over 200 faculty and students spanning five colleges and ten departments. To coordinate this large group of participants who comprise over seventeen teams and work at disjoint hours in a plethora of locations, online project management, software source control and hardware …

Spatial Computing In An Orbital Environment: An Exploration Of The Unique Constraints Of This Special Case To Other Spatial Computing Environments, Jeremy Straub

Jeremy Straub

The creation of an orbital services model (where spacecraft expose their capabilities for use by other spacecraft as part of a service-for-hire or barter system) requires effective determination of how to best transmit information between the two collaborating spacecraft. Existing approaches developed for ad hoc networking (e.g., wireless networks with users entering and departing in a pseudo-random fashion) exist; however, these fail to generate optimal solutions as they ignore a critical piece of available information. This additional piece of information is the orbital characteristics of the spacecraft. A spacecraft’s orbit is nearly deterministic if the magnitude and direction of its …

Open And Openorbiter: A Needs-Responsive Solution For The Small Satellite Community, Jeremy Straub, Atif Mohammad

Jeremy Straub

The Open Prototype for Educational NanoSats (OPEN) is an initiative launched at the University of North Dakota, as a public service to the nation and the world. The OPEN team is working to create a design, set of implementation instructions and a testing plan for a 1-U CubeSat (which can also serve as a basis for a 2-U or 3-U CubeSat with limited modifications). These will be made publically available to facilitate the low-cost implementation of CubeSat programs at other institutions. The target of the designs is to allow fabrication with a parts budget of approximately $5,000. This is, thus, …

A 6-U Commercial Constellation For Space Solar Power Supply To Other Spacecraft, Corey Bergsrud, Jeremy Straub

Jeremy Straub

This poster presents early stage planning for a constellation

of 6-U CubeSats which will collect power from

the sun and supply it to other spacecraft in Earth orbit. Unlike

solar panels (which have a known decay rate), antenna

systems (such as would be required to receive microwavetransmitted

power) do not substantially decay over the

typical (or prospectively extended, under this model)

spacecraft lifetime. This allows a spacecraft to be built for

long-term operations (utilizing an electric propulsion technology

and/or a greater supply of conventional propellant)

and receive power from a lower-cost utility provider

spacecraft, which can be replaced on a …

Work To-Date On Mechanical Design For An Open Hardware Spacecraft, Jacob Brewer, Brian Badders, Josh Berk, Jeremy Straub

Jeremy Straub

The OpenOrbiter CubeSat seeks to demonstrate the designs created for the Open Prototype for Educational NanoSats (OPEN) initiative. OPEN provides a set of freely available design documents that can be utilized by educational and research teams worldwide. The OPEN structure implements a different strategy than most other CubeSats, allowing it to maximize the use of the overhang space (an area of space between the supports for the frame rails and the wall in the PPOD deployer). It also provides a location for payload components or a propellant tank at the spacecraft’s center of mass. This design is enabled by a …

Do We Have An Itar Problem: A Review Of The Implications Of Itar And Title Vii On Small Satellite Programs, Jeremy Straub, Joe Vacek

Jeremy Straub

The small satellite space certainly falls within the realm of ITAR considerations. Some programs operate under the (perhaps mistaken) belief that ITAR doesn’t apply to them (or that they will never be caught). Others may assert that they are working under the basic research exemption. Still others have implemented ITAR information and facility access controls. At best, ITAR introduces a level of uncertainty regarding small satellite programs; at worst, it may be a predator lurking in the proverbial ‘tall grass’ waiting to pounce. This paper reviews the current state of ITAR legislation (including efforts to reform and revise the law) …

Stemsat: An Iss Cubesat Program Based On Spare Parts, Anders Nervold, Josh Berk, Jeremy Straub

Jeremy Straub

With the national government’s focus on driving STEM-education, it is important to provide hands-on ave-nues where students can engage with, and accumulate ex-perience working directly with projects within their fields of interest. The Student Technology Emersion Satellite (STEMSat), provides an avenue for students to become in-volved in CubeSat design and development with only mi-nor hardware and monetary resources, and without being dependent on a launch.

STEMSats are CubeSat satellites that are created from spare parts, residual tools and equipment, obsolete mate-rials, and other types of trash aboard the ISS. A list of all the excess items available for such a …