Aerospace Engineering Commons^™

A Control System For Space Solar Power, Jeremy Straub

Jeremy Straub

This poster presents an algorithm for the implementation of a control system that accepts power requests and makes distribution assignments to maximize the performance of the overall space solar power (SSP) system and meet service level agreements (SLAs). This complex process involves projecting service-customer demand into the future, projecting power availability on each servicing spacecraft and implementing corrective measures should actual craft performance not meet with planning expectations. The control system is implemented as a planning problem with some deterministic elements (craft position and generation) and some probabilistically predicted elements (interference, drag and malfunctions). A heuristic solver is proposed that …

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 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 …

Small Satellites With Micro-Propulsion For Communications With The Lunar South Pole Aitkens Basin, Samudra E. Haque, Jeremy Straub, David Whalen

Jeremy Straub

A lunar sample return mission to the Lunar South-Pole Aitkens Basin (LSPAB) has been highlighted as a high priority objective of the most recent (2011) Decadal Survey for Planetary Science, by the National Research Council. This class of mission, however, faces a dramatic communications limitation, due to the lack of a frequent, or continuous, line-of-sight communications path to Earthbased ground stations. Brunner and others have proposed a communications system utilizing Low Lunar Polar Orbits (LLPO) and Lunar Halo orbits for this purpose. Ely and others have outlined proposals for using several communication satellites to form a relay network using LLPO, …