Engineering Commons^™

Initial Results From The First National Survey Of Student Outcomes From Small Satellite Program Participation, Jeremy Straub

Jeremy Straub

This paper presents initial results of the first national / international survey of student participants in CubeSat and other small spacecraft programs. It aims to make portions of the results of the survey available for immediate use by the CubeSat / small spacecraft community prior to the completion of a thorough analysis of the results and consideration of correlating and prospective causation factors for various outcomes.

The Use Of Low-Cost ‘Balloonsats’ For Stem Education With 3d Printing, Jeremy Straub, Josh Berk, John Nordlie, Ronald Marsh

Jeremy Straub

A new technology, known as 3D printing, allows the rap-id fabrication of plastic structures of virtually any config-uration. These structures are light-weight, dura-ble and inexpensive. This paper considers the utility of utilizing 3D printing to create enclosures for ‘BalloonSats’ – small, low-cost spacecraft analog which can be utilized by students to understand space engi-neering, conduct near-space science (e.g., physics, bio-logical and other experiments) and touch the edge of space.

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 …

Considering The Educational Benefits Of A Cubesat Program, Jeremy Straub, Samudra Haque, Christopher K. Dinelli

Jeremy Straub

This presentation will provide an overview of work performed at the University of North Dakota with regards to the characterization of educational benefits from small spacecraft development efforts. We report on efforts to characterize benefits that ensued from participation for personal extracurricular enrichment, as part of a formal class (on project management), as part of multiple senior design projects, for independent study credit and for satisfying class project requirements. This assessment has been performed using a standard questionnaire for student research participation as well as custom questionnaires related to program focus areas. We have also analyzed student course performance, where …

The Use Of Solar Balloons At Und As A Low-Cost Alternative To Helium Balloons For Small Spacecraft Testing And Stem Education, John Nordlie, Jeremy Straub, Chris Theisen, Ronald Marsh

Jeremy Straub

Helium-filled latex weather balloons have been utilized for many years to carry small satellite prototypes and subsystems into the stratosphere to allow testing in a “near space” (stratospheric) environment. A variety of environmental factors similar to the space environment can be found in this region, such as a rarified atmosphere, increased thermal stress including very low temperatures, increased solar radiation, the necessity of remote command and control, tracking, and telemetering of data. While this method of flight testing has been well-proven, a recent increase in the price of helium has driven the cost of such test programs to much higher …

The Use Of The Roofsat For Computer Science And Engineering Education, Jeremy Straub, Ronald Marsh

Jeremy Straub

This poster presents an overview of a tool that has been created to provide students with real-world experience in the design, development and operation of control and scientific mission software for a cyber-physical system. The ROOFSAT, developed at UND, is a low-cost analog for a small spacecraft (though in many ways these capabilities also enable similar UAV work). The ROOFSAT was constructed with approximately $1,500 generously provided by the John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences out of commercially-available parts. It includes multiple cameras, a pan-tilt mount and the same space-qualified computer hardware which has been used on both spacecraft …

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 …

Solar Ballooning: A Low-Cost Alternative To Helium Balloons For Small Spacecraft Testing, John Nordlie, Jeremy Straub, Chris Theisen, Ronald Marsh

Jeremy Straub

Helium-filled latex weather balloons have been utilized to carry small satellite prototypes and subsystems into the stratosphere to allow testing in a “near space” environment. This provides a variety of environmental factors similar to the space environment, such as a rarified atmosphere, increased thermal stress, increased solar radiation, the necessity of remote command and control, tracking, and telemetering of data. While this method of flight testing has been well-proven, a recent spike in the price of helium has driven the cost of such test programs to much higher levels. In this poster, an alternative technology to provide the flight mechanism, …

Openorbiter Small Spacecraft Development Program Educational Benefits, Jeremy Straub

Jeremy Straub

No abstract provided.

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 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 …

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 …

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).

Operating Standards For The High Altitude Ballooning Community, Jeremy Straub, John Nordlie, Ernest Anderson

Jeremy Straub

This paper provides an overview of work to define a set of standards for adoption by the academic high altitude balloon community. These standards go above-and-beyond the requirements imposed by §101 of the Federal Aviation Regulations, incorporating best practices and suggesting how §101 requirements should be interpreted and applied in several situations.

One area where FAR§101 is extremely vague is with regards to the operations of balloons with small payloads. These payloads are exempt from most requirements; however, they are required to not create a “hazard”. Problematically, what exactly qualifies as a “hazard” is not defined in FAR§101 or elsewhere …

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 …

The Openorbiter Program: Intrepreneurship, Entrepreneurship And Innovation, Jeremy Straub

Jeremy Straub

The University of North Dakota’s OpenOrbiter program is providing an interdisciplinary learning experience for students from numerous STEM and non-STEM fields. OpenOrbiter allows student participants to experience not just the engineering and other technical aspects of the space program, it also involves students from diverse, non-STEM fields (including communications, entrepreneurship, management, visual arts, public policy and English). Traditional STEM fields such as mathematics, physics, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, computer science and technology are also well represented. Students from specially programs at the University of North Dakota including atmospheric sciences, Earth System Sciences and Policy, aviation, Space Studies and Air Traffic …

The International Trafficking In Arms Regulations: Precluding Innovation In Academic Spacecraft Engineering — Or Are They?, Jeremy Straub, Joe Vacek

Jeremy Straub

Government regulations and uncertainty about their enforcement can be a significant barrier to innovation. In business, it is undesirable to consume time and other resources developing a product that cannot be sold or which requires navigating significant bureaucracy for each sale. In academ-ia, where limited funding is available prior to the submission of a grant pro-posal and receipt of an award, proposal-stage compliance costs can derail a project long before it begins. This paper reviews the International Traffick-ing in Arms Regulations (ITAR) and their impact on spacecraft research in academia, private research labs and industry. It reviews the exemptions available, …

Risk Analysis & Management In Student-Centered Spacecraft Development Projects, Jeremy Straub, Ronald Fevig, James Casler, Om Yadav

Jeremy Straub

Student involvement in any engineering project introduces an element of risk. This risk is particularly pronounced with small spacecraft projects, as a failure of the spacecraft on-orbit can result in a complete failure of the mission. However, student involvement in these projects is critical to allow research aims to be accomplished, in a university setting, and to train the next generation of spacecraft engineering professionals. The nature of risks posed by student involvement is discussed and a framework for assessing and mitigating these risks presented.

The North Dakota Space Robotics Program: Teaching Spacecraft Development Skills To Students Statewide With High Altitude Ballooning, Jeremy Straub, Ronald Fevig

Jeremy Straub

The University of North Dakota is serving as the lead institution in a statewide effort to develop student spacecraft engineering skills. This effort, which is part of the North Dakota Space Robotics Program (NDSRP), provides students the ability to participate in the design, development and fabrication of a small satellite analog that is launched by a high altitude balloon. The first iteration of the NDSRP Near-Spacecraft Project is generating a functional prototype of a remote sensing payload, which will perform onboard image processing. This project included undergraduate and graduate students from two institutions and five different academic departments. The students …

Formalizing Mission Analysis And Design Techniques For High Altitude Ballooning, Jeremy Straub, Ronald Fevig

Jeremy Straub

High altitude balloon (HAB) missions can be and are used to teach concepts related to spacecraft and satellite design. A HAB mission, however, presents unique characteristics, which must be understood and respected to produce a desirable outcome. Because of this, flying an unaltered satellite design as a HAB payload would be as undesirable as utilizing an unaltered HAB design as a satellite. A well-defined process for HAB mission design is thus needed. The process presented mirrors commonly used space mission design processes to facilitate easy transition between the two. It is also comparatively simple, due to the smaller scale of …