Aerospace Engineering Commons^™

Update On The Progress Of The 1-U Open Cubesat Development, Jeremy Straub, Ronald Marsh

Jeremy Straub

The OpenOrbiter program [1] is developing a low-cost framework for the creation of space-craft [2] by researchers and educators world-wide [3]. In line with the objective of enabling future educational use by others, educational assessment [4, 5] has been a key focus. Sever-al areas were assessed: students were asked what types of benefits they sought from their participation [6], assessment of benefit attain-ment is ongoing. Work on the development of a designs (See Figures 2 and 8) that can be used to build a spacecraft with a cost of under $5,000 [7] using primarily COTS parts and testing (see Figure …

Small Satellite Communication System Creation At The University Of North Dakota, Michael Hlas, Jeremy Straub, Ronald Marsh

Jeremy Straub

Software defined radios (SDRs) are poised to significantly enhance the future of small spacecraft communications. They allow signal processing to be performed on a computer by software rather than requiring dedicated hardware. The OpenOrbiter SDR (discussed in [1] and refined in [2]) takes data from the flight computer and converts it into an analog signal that is transmitted via the spacecraft antenna. Because the signal processing is done in software, the radio can be easily reconfigured. This process is done in reverse for incoming transmissions, which are received by the SDR and decoded by software. Figures 1 and 2 provide …

Mechanical Design Of A Low-Cost Deployable Solar Panel Array For A 1-U Cubesat, Thomas Mcguire, Skye Leake, Michael Parsons, Michael Hirsch, Benjamin Kading, Jeremy Straub, David Whalen

Jeremy Straub

CubeSats are small spacecraft with a nominal size of 10 cm x 10 cm x 10 cm and a mass of 1.33 kg (though some launch providers are now supporting expanded mass levels). While the CubeSat form factor has reduced the time and cost of spacecraft development, the required resources are still beyond the grasp of many colleges and universities. The Open Prototype for Educational Nanosats (OPEN) concept aims to solve this problem. OPEN is an inexpensive modular CubeSat that can be produced with a parts budget of less than $5,000. The OpenOrbiter program is working to develop this set …

Electrical Power System For An Open Hardware Cubesat, Sofiane Chaieb, Michael Wegerson, Jeremy Straub, Ronald Marsh, David Whalen

Jeremy Straub

The OpenOrbiter program is developing a complete set of CubeSat hardware and software to facilitate the development of a 1-U CubeSat (10 cm x 10 cm x 10 cm, 1.33 kg spacecraft) with a parts cost of less than $5,000. This poster covers the electrical power system (EPS) for that spacecraft. The EPS is an assemblage of components that supplies all spacecraft subsystems with power, while performing health assessment of the battery and electrical buses. The EPS has a crucial role in the spacecraft and thus has to be developed and tested with extreme care.

The EPS generates power using …

Open Prototype For Educational Nanosats Cubesat Structural Design, Benjamin Kading, Jeremy Straub, Ronald Marsh

Jeremy Straub

CubeSats are a class of small satellites that have recently gained significant interest and are being developed and used for engineering test missions, bona fide research and various other applications. A 1-U CubeSat (the original form factor) has nominal dimensions of 10 cm x 10 cm x 10 cm and a mass of no more than 1.33 kg (however, some integrators are now consistently allowing higher mass levels). Due to their small size and the demonstrated ability to successfully use consumer-grade electronics in low-Earth orbit, CubeSats cost significantly less than larger sized satellites. These reduced costs, however, are still beyond …

A Low-Cost Radio For An Open Cubesat, Michael Wegerson, Jeremy Straub, Ronald Marsh

Jeremy Straub

The OpenOrbiter small spacecraft development program aims to develop a template that can be used by colleges and universities world-wide to ‘jumpstart’ their own CubeSat development program. It is doing this through the development of designs (and implementations to test the designs functionality) of all basic CubeSat subsystems. A CubeSat can prospectively perform elements of a mission that would otherwise have required the development and deployment of a multi-million dollar satellite, thus, interest in CubeSats in industry and government is strong as well. The Open Prototype for Educational Nanosats (OPEN) design being produced by the OpenOrbiter program may, thus, be …

The Creation Of A Communication Systems For A Small Satellite At The University Of North Dakota, Michael Hlas, Jeremy Straub, Ronald Marsh

Jeremy Straub

Software defined radios (SDRs) are poised to significantly enhance the future of small spacecraft communications. They allow signal processing to be performed on a computer by software rather than requiring dedicated hardware. The SDR takes data from the flight computer and converts it into an analog signal that is transmitted via the spacecraft antenna. Because the signal processing is done in software, the radio can be easily reconfigured.

Data is prepared for transmission by TCP stack software onboard the OpenOrbiter Spacecraft and placed in a queue while the spacecraft is listening for a signal from a ground station. When a …

Design And Development Of A Payload Area Sub-Structure For A 1-U Cubesat, Tristan Plante, Jordan Forbord, Alexander Holland, Landon Klein, Benjamin Kading, Jeremy Straub, Ronald Marsh

Jeremy Straub

Advancements in the miniaturization of electronics and other factors have allowed CubeSats, small satellites that can be created at a much lower cost than a large satellite, to perform numerous useful tasks. CubeSats, which are nominally 10 cm x 10 cm x 10 cm with a mass of less than 1.33 kg, are also developed in academic institutions to aid student learning; however, the development and launch of CubeSats can be expensive. Because of this, the Open Prototype for Educational NanoSats (OPEN) aims to make CubeSat development more affordable by developing a set of design documents as well as the …

Update On The Development Of A 1-U Cubesat At The University Of North Dakota, Jeremy Straub, Ronald Marsh

Jeremy Straub

An overview of the progress on the development of the OpenOrbiter CubeSat is presented. This covers, at a high level, the work that has been performed during the past year and foundational work that occurred prior to this. This poster also discusses future plans for the Open Prototype for Educational NanoSats (OPEN) framework and the OpenOrbiter Small Spacecraft Development Initiative. Particular focus is given to the ongoing work to prepare for an orbital launch, which the program has been down-selected for through the NASA ELaNa CubeSat Launch Initiative program.

In addition to this discussion of the program’s origins, goals and …

Design Of An Onboard Distributed Multiprocessing System For A Cubesat, Michael Wegerson, Jeremy Straub, Ronald Marsh

Jeremy Straub

The OpenOrbiter program aims to develop a low-cost framework to facilitate the development of CubeSat-class spacecraft (small spacecraft with nominal dimensions of 10 cm x 10 cm x 10 cm) for a parts cost of less than $5,000. To validate the framework that has been developed, a prototype unit will also be fabricated and tested in low-Earth orbit. In addition to validating the development of Open Prototype for Educational Nanosats (OPEN) framework, the spacecraft will perform on-orbit science. One aspect of the science mission will be to demonstrate and characterize the efficacy of two types of image processing. To this …

Scheduling Algorithm Development For An Open Source Software Spacecraft, Calvin Bina, Jeremy Straub, Ronald Marsh

Jeremy Straub

The OpenOrbiter project at the University of North Dakota is working to develop a set of designs for a CubeSat class spacecraft as well as a working, modular collection of open source code that can be used by other CubeSat projects as a starting point for development. The availability of these designs and this codebase should foster accelerated development for other CubeSat projects, allowing those projects to focus their effort on their own application area, instead of reinventing the proverbial wheel. One aspect of this is to implement a task scheduler which will run on a Raspberry Pi flight computer …

Hardware Design For An Intelligent Attitude Determination And Control System (Adcs), Michael Wegerson, Matt Partridge, Nathan Crocker, David Schindele, Broc Friend, Levi Lewis, Ben Johnson, Jeremy Straub, Ronald Marsh

Jeremy Straub

Attitude determination and control is one of the most important subsystems on any satellite, allowing the spacecraft to sense and control its orientation while in orbit. Attitude sensing is achieved by measuring the satellite’s acceleration, rotation, and it’s alinement to Earth’s magnetic field. With its orientation determined, a satellite can use one or several different techniques to regulate its motion. One methods is to use of a pseudo-passive system of electromagnets (called magnetorquers) powered at specific times to use magnetic fields generated by the Earth to exert force on the spacecraft, thereby controlling the rotation of the satellite and facilitating …

An Overview Of The Openorbiter Autonomous Operating Software, Dayln Limesand, Timothy Whitney, Jeremy Straub, Ronald Marsh

Jeremy Straub

The OpenOrbiter spacecraft aims to demonstrate the efficacy of the Open Prototype for Educational Nanosats (OPEN) framework. Software is an important part of this framework. This paper discusses the operating software for the spacecraft (which runs on top of the Linux operating system to command spacecraft operations). It presents an overview of this software and then pays particular attention to the aspects of software design that enable onboard autonomy. It also discusses the messaging scheme that is used onboard and the testing and validation plan. Finally, it discusses system extensibility, before concluding.

Analysis Of A ‘Turn-Key’ No Hardware Space Mission Using The Orbital Services Model, Jeremy Straub

Jeremy Straub

Many applications that would benefit from access to space cannot afford the cost of spacecraft development, launch and operations. Other operations require only a fraction of a spacecraft or complete use of a spacecraft for a limited period of time. This paper considers the value of a ‘turn-key’ style space mission. It considers what types of missions could be reasonably conducted using this approach. The economics of being a service provider are considered. Then, a prospective mission concept for one OSM ‘turn-key’ mission is presented. The value proposition of this mission is assessed and the hardware and other capabilities required …

Nanosatellite Scheduling Using A Dictionary Module And A ‘Useful Trick’ With Coded Unsigned Integers, Monilito Castro, Jeremy Straub

Jeremy Straub

Schedulers for small spacecraft must satisfy the dual requirement of generating very efficient schedules while concurrently minimizing the resources required to create the schedule. This paper proposes a technique for searching for tasks that can be utilized to fill particular schedule locations. This approach is based on a modular system for storing important variables. This modular system has three important variables: t0, x0 and y0. The variable y is latitude and x is longitude. Time variable t is an integer and each unit represents a time quantum. They are related to each other by three functions Ft, Fx, and Fy. …

Swarm Intelligence, A Blackboard Architecture And Local Decision Making For Spacecraft Command, Jeremy Straub

Jeremy Straub

Control of a multi-spacecraft constellation is a topic of significant inquiry, at present. This paper presents and evaluates a command architecture for a multi-spacecraft mission. It combines swarm techniques with a decentralized / local decision making architecture (which uses a set of shared blackboards for coordination) and demonstrates the efficacy of this approach. Under this approach, the Blackboard software architecture is used to facilitate data sharing between craft as part of a resilient hierarchy and the swarm techniques are used to coordinate activity. The paper begins with an overview of prior work on the precursor command technologies and then presents …

Small Satellite Communications Security And Student Learning In The Development Of Ground Station Software, Scott Kerlin, Jeremy Straub, Jacob Huhn, Alexander Lewis

Jeremy Straub

Communications security is gaining importance as small spacecraft include actuator capabilities (i.e., propulsion), payloads which could be misappropriated (i.e., high resolution cameras), and research missions with high value/cost. However, security is limited by capability, interoperability and regulation. Additionally, as the small satellite community becomes more mainstream and diverse, the lack of cheap, limited-to-no configuration, pluggable security modules for small satellites also presents a limit for user adoption of security.

This paper discusses a prospective approach for incorporating robust security into a student-developed ground station created at the University of North Dakota as part of a Computer Science Department senior design …

Using A Constellation Of Cubesats For In-Space Optical 3d Scanning, Jeremy Straub

Jeremy Straub

The assessment of in-space objects is an area of ongoing research. Characterization of resident space objects (RSOs) can be useful for assessing the operating status of operator-affiliated or non-affiliated space assets, identifying unknown objects or gathering additional details for known objects. Under the proposed approach, a ring-like constellation of CubeSats passes around the target (at a distance) collecting imagery. This imagery is then utilized to create a 3D model of the target. This paper considers several key elements of a constellation to perform this type of imaging, including the constellation design and imaging capabilities required and the astrodynamics relevant to …

Structure And A Detailed Analysis Of Various Simulation Results Of Cntfet: A Review, Innovative Research Publications Irp India, Himanshu Gautam, Prateek Bindra

Innovative Research Publications IRP India

A detailed review on the Carbon Nanotube Filed Effect Transistors (CNTFETs) has been given. A little description about what are carbon nanotubes is also been covered. Various simulation results have also been included in this paper in order to provide better understanding about the carbon nanotubes field effect transistors.Characteristic Graphs of a C-CNTFET with n=10. m=11 (diameter=1.4246 nm) have been studied. Threshold voltage of CNTFETs vs n (for m=0) is also simulated. Equivalent high-frequency small-signal circuit model for a Nanotube transistor has also been analyzed. Also current voltage relationship of the CNTFET with respect to gate oxide thickness and dielectric …

Reducing Magneto-Inductive Positioning Errors In A Metal-Rich Indoor Environment, Orfeas Kypris, Traian Abrudan, Andrew Markham

Orfeas Kypris

Ferrous objects distort magnetic fields and can significantly increase magneto-inductive positioning errors in indoor environments. In this work, we use image theory in order to formulate an analytical channel model for the magnetic field of a quasi-static magnetic dipole positioned above a perfectly conducting half-space. The proposed model can be used to compensate for the distorting effects that metallic reinforcement bars (rebars) impose on the magnetic field of a magneto-inductive transmitter node in an indoor environment. Good agreement is observed between the analytical solution and numerical solutions obtained from 2-D finite element simulations when the transmitter node is located more …

Openorbiter Mechanical Design: A New Approach To The Design Of A 1-U Cubesat, Benjamin Kading, Jeremy Straub, Ronald Marsh

Jeremy Straub

The OpenOrbiter Small Spacecraft Development Initiative is working to create a set of designs and implementation instructions for a 1-U CubeSat, called the Open Prototype for Educational NanoSats. These designs target a total parts cost of below USD $5,000. This design will be made publically available to facilitate its use by others, with or without modification. A ‘side slotted’ CubeSat design (where main circuit boards are placed in slots between the rails on the outside) has been developed for OpenOrbiter. This paper discusses the design choices that were made during the mechanical structure development of the OpenOrbiter CubeSat design, required …

Intelligent Water Drops Algorithm For Coordinating Between Cluster Spacecraft In A Communications-Denied Environment, Jeremy Straub

Jeremy Straub

This paper presents a modification of Shah-Hosseini’s Intelligent Water Drops (IWD) technique that can be utilized for collaborative control of multiple spacecraft in environments where communications are limited, intermittent or denied. It presents Shah- Hosseini’s base IWD algorithm as well as refinements thereof, which simplify it, making it more suitable for more computationally constrained environments (such as small spacecraft and UAVs). A framework for testing the proposed approach as well as several implementation impediments are discussed.

In Search Of Standards For The Operation Of Small Satellites, Jeremy Straub

Jeremy Straub

This paper considers the need for standards for the operations of small spacecraft. First, it considers a definition for what a small spacecraft is and discusses the elusiveness of this definition. Then, the paper turns to the ‘large space’ community and it examines their fears about small spacecraft as well as the operating paradigms that they are used to and how these drive their expectations for the operations of small spacecraft. Next, a prospective composition for a preliminary set of operating standards is discussed. Finally, a discussion of the benefits of standardization and what the different communities could expect to …

Development Of A Low-Cost Experimental Quadcopter Testbed Using An Arduino Controller And Software, Ankyda Ji, Kamran Turkoglu

Kamran Turkoglu

This paper explains the integration process of an autonomous quadcopter platform and the design of Arduino based novel software architecture that enables the execution of advanced control laws on low-cost off-the-shelf products based frameworks. Here, quadcopter dynamics are explored through the classical nonlinear equations of motion. Next, quadcopter is designed, built and assembled using off-the-shelf, low-cost products to carry a camera payload which is mainly utilized for any type of surveillance missions. System identification of the quadcopter dynamics is accomplished through the use of sweep data and CIFER^R to obtain the dynamic model. The unstable, non-linear quadcopter dynamics are …

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 Two-Phase Development And Validation Plan For North Dakota's First Spacecraft, Jeremy Straub, Ronald Marsh

Jeremy Straub

The Open Prototype for Educational NanoSats (OPEN) aims to make space more accessible for educational and other uses by driving down the cost of CubeSat development. This paper presents a tentative plan for the use of two orbital missions as part of a two-phase technology demonstration sequence focusing on raising the technology readiness level (TRL) of OPEN to a level suitable for wide use and adoption. It presents an overview of a two-mission development plan including mission objectives, requirements and constraints. The paper considers how the phase one mission’s spacecraft may serve as a lower-cost platform for some users in …

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.