Aerospace Engineering Commons^™

From Model To Mission: A Model-Based Method For Managing Spacecraft Ai&T Activities, Andy Young, Dan Christensen

Small Satellite Conference

Assembly, Integration, and Test (AI&T) is one of the most complex phases of spacecraft development, requiring engineers to coordinate interconnected procedures, specialized equipment, personnel, and evolving schedules. Traditional AI&T planning relies on separate diagrams, schedules, spreadsheets, and documents that must be manually synchronized, increasing engineering effort and the risk of inconsistencies. Meanwhile, many Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) methodologies effectively end before design implementation. We present a methodology that addresses these challenges by extending MBSE practices to provide a single source of truth for AI&T information.

A Stackable Multi-Mppt Power Architecture With Paralleled Inputs For Scalable Cubesat Solar Energy Harvesting, Muhammed Syedali N., Anamika A. Kamath, Nithin Krishnan S. S., Ashfaque K. P., Sijo George, Arun P., Jr-Chiun Roger Tsai, Tensae Ali, Jesmin Jose, Athira B. S.

Small Satellite Conference

In traditional CubeSat configurations, the Maximum Power Point Tracking (MPPT) circuit acts as a critical single point of failure because all harvested solar energy is funneled through a single, non-redundant conversion stage. Consequently, the failure of this individual component completely blocks power delivery to the system, permanently stranding otherwise healthy solar arrays and batteries and causing catastrophic mission termination.

This work introduces a modular, stackable solar energy architecture that distributes power conditioning across multiple identical, autonomous modules connected to shared PV and battery buses. By relying purely on analog input-voltage regulation at a common operating point, it eliminates radiation-vulnerable digital …

Autongc Flight Opnav Experiment Results On Capstone, Andrew J. Liounis, Sun Hur-Diaz, Behnam Azimi, Nichalas L. Cason, Chris R. Gnam, Grant Hecht, Steven Z. Queen, Michael J. Romeo, Sean R. Semper, Nathan Stacey, Andrew Tennenbaum, Daniel G. Berdugo, Carl J. De Vries, Benjamin Leser, Anne Long, Liam A. Greenlee, Joseph W. Patton, Steven B. Slegel, Isaac R. Witte

Small Satellite Conference

Summary: We successfully demonstrated on-board automated optical navigation (OpNav) in a lunar near rectilinear halo orbit (NRHO) using images of the Moon, the Earth, and other solar system bodies, advancing the technology readiness level (TRL) of the autonomous guidance navigation and control (autoNGC) OpNav capabilities from 5 to 7.

Development Of Spacecraft Digital Twins For Flight Software Maintenance, Robert Klar

Small Satellite Conference

This research project developed a digital twin—a virtual representation of a physical spacecraft, including its components, interfaces, and communications. By leveraging the digital twin’s ability to be replicated, modified, and distributed efficiently, the project enhances capabilities in design, analysis, and optimization. It significantly reduces risk, cost, and development schedules for flight software by minimizing dependencies on hardware resources. The project was executed as a collaborative effort between the Intelligent Systems Division (10) and Space Systems Division (05).

Development Of The Optical Components For Leo Satellite Communication Equipment, Tomoaki Toriya, Masaki Ogura, Yoshiriho Kamihama, Tomoaki Kiriyama, Katsuhiro Iwasaki, Takashi Kato

Small Satellite Conference

We supply highly reliable optical components such as Optical Isolators, Circulators, and Filters used in optical submarine repeaters. The Faraday rotator, a key device in optical Isolators, is manufactured from crystals, which also enhances the reliability of our products.

Last year we reported that our standard optical isolator YD-460 withstands the LEO satellite environment (radiation exposure, thermal vacuum cycling) and showed no laser-induced degradation up to 4.8 W at 1.48 µm (Raman pump).

In this work, the laser durability was evaluated with a high-power 1.55 µm source (max. 10 W), the wavelength actually used in satellite optical communication. Optical Isolator …

Optical Advantages In Using Extremely Stable Materials In Small Satellite Telescopes, Tony Hull, Jesse Bonfeld, Dustin Ruth, Florian Gollier, Janina Krieg, Thomas Westerhoff, Jacqueline Caraballo

Small Satellite Conference

Small-satellite telescopes experience continuous thermal transients from changing Sun and Earth view factors plus CONOPS → temperature gradients T(xi) → distort mirrors/metering if the material is sensitive to temperature.

Transients are partially mitigated by diffusivity, but only with uniform temperature changes. Orbital and CONOPS transients are not uniform → The architect must examine the material response to realistic transients and gradients.

Optimal optical performance is supported by appropriate passive material attributes!

Resilient Positioning And Resident Space Object Identification Using Miniaturized Star Tracker Hardware, Justin Kruger, Aviad Golan, Simone D’Amico

Small Satellite Conference

Robust alternative positioning, navigation, and timing (APNT) is a critical enabling capability in orbits where GNSS availability is degraded or denied.

Timely, accurate space situational awareness (SSA) knowledge is necessary for autonomy and safety in dynamic space environments.

Semi-Autonomous Reconnaissance Satellite: A Laboratory Demonstration Of End-To-End On-Board Mission Autonomy, Eran Shtoyerman, Raphael Cohen, Rafi Cohen, Oshri Fatkiev, Guy Zaidman, Gal Pinchas, Doron Shterman

Small Satellite Conference

Real-time satellite responsiveness to user requests from the field remains largely unavailable in current space systems. Such capabilities are typically restricted to low-altitude airborne platforms, primarily due to limited satellite communication bandwidth, intermittent ground contact, and the reliance on ground-based mission planning. Enabling true responsiveness requires a paradigm shift toward highly autonomous satellites, in which target selection, task execution, and mission planning are performed on board.

For example, a user may request a satellite to perform the following task in real-time: detect a ceiling tanker ship in a specified area, estimate its velocity from video data, and autonomously track the …

Swap: An Ai-Enabled Cubesat For Low-Latency Space Weather Alerting, Miles H. Currie, Douglas Franz, Paul Kocyla, Omar Sharaf, Sarvesh Garimella

Small Satellite Conference

1 — Background

• Growing dependence on space-based assets (telecom, transport, grid, GPS) = growing space-weather exposure
• A Carrington-class storm today would mean cascading failures and losses in the trillions
• Current assets (e.g. GOES, ACE, DSCOVR) are excellent but large, costly, and with minutes to hours of alert latency from ground processing; weak coverage off the Earth–Sun line, where multi-point views could untangle the solar flare/SEP/ CME chain
• The Space Weather Alerting Platform (SWAP) concept mission (right) is a low-cost, 3U cubesat solution for proliferated solar monitoring with low-latency onboard AI alerting

Tailored Catalysts For Space Propulsion, Florian Harth, Kathy Bynum, Ilaria Longobardo, Hendrik Spod, Ingo Gräf, Alexander Bier, Hans-Jörg Wölk

Small Satellite Conference

Why catalysts matter in space propulsion

Chemical propulsion systems remain indispensable for satellite attitude control, orbit correction and collision avoidance maneuvers due to their reliability and high specific impulse. In monopropellant thrusters, the catalyst initiates the rapid decomposition of the propellant, generating hot reaction gases that produce thrust without external ignition. Catalyst performance and especially catalyst stability therefore directly determine ignition reliability, response time, thermal stability and operational lifetime of the propulsion system.

Heraeus Precious Metals provides heterogeneous catalysts tailored for space propulsion by combining precious metal chemistry, support engineering and scalable manufacturing to meet the demanding requirements of aerospace …

Twinning The On-Orbit Power Behavior Of Small Satellites Using Time-Domain Solar And Load Modeling, Nithin Krishnan S S, Vishnupriya P K, Vishnu Unnikrishnan, Jr-Chiun Roger Tsai, Tensae Ali, Jesmin Jose, Athira B S

Small Satellite Conference

Accurate estimation of on-orbit power availability under dynamic attitude conditions is critical to the reliable design of small satellite electrical power subsystems. During tumbling, detumbling, and mode transitions, rapid variations in solar incidence, eclipse exposure, and subsystem demand introduce strong temporal fluctuations that conventional static or orbit-averaged budgeting cannot capture.

This work presents a modular, time-domain power budgeting framework that models the coupled evolution of power generation, consumption, and energy storage under near-realistic attitude and operational conditions. Solar generation is computed from the time-varying Sun–spacecraft geometry for a multi-panel spacecraft, with per-panel MPPT, deployment state, angle-of-incidence effects, and eclipse …

A Feasibility-Aware Attitude Trajectory Planner For Small Satellites, Patrick Mckeen, Niclas Scheuer, Kerri Cahoy

Small Satellite Conference

Spacecraft attitude control traditionally requires extensive per-mission engineering—hand-tuned gains, mission-specific mode logic, and conservative operating envelopes—that breaks down when on-orbit conditions deviate from ground assumptions. This is especially costly for small satellites, where limited ground support makes autonomous adaptability essential. We present a feasibility-aware attitude trajectory planner that replaces this hand-engineered stack with continuous planning from a digital twin: less a new feedback law than a different division of labor, in which the mode logic, gain tuning, and desaturation a conventional ADCS builds as separate pieces are instead absorbed into a single optimization.

Built on the ALTRO trajectory optimization algorithm, …

Small Satellite Launches From Japan: Zero Launch Vehicle And Hokkaido Spaceport, Atsuta Keiji, Masaki Fujii

Small Satellite Conference

INTEGRATED LAUNCH SYSTEM

• Easy access to factory in case of last minute iterations
• Simplified logistics
• Launch site is tailored made for ZERO

High-Torque Reaction Wheels For Agile Small Satellites, Thomas Brunsgaard, Matt Carton, Kearney Lackas

Small Satellite Conference

Blue Canyon Technologies has developed a high-torque reaction wheel (RW) product line to meet the growing attitude control demands of next-generation small spacecraft. As small satellites expand into missions requiring rapid retargeting and precise pointing, spacecraft agility is foundational to mission performance. More targets equal more data collection, translating to greater mission insight and revenue generation. 

This paper describes Blue Canyon’s approach to product line architecture that enabled rapid development and deployment of high-torque reaction wheels across multiple size classes. The high-torque variants deliver 0.5 Nm of torque, representing a 2X increase over standard configurations with 60% of the baseline …

Shining A Spotlight On Maritime Dark Traffic, Alex Da Silva Curiel, Darren Jones, Rob Knight, Rupert Taylor, Leo Jofeh, Sir Martin Sweeting, Per Atle Våland, Simon Flack, Patrik Mandelin, Håkon Heier

Small Satellite Conference

The ability to support Maritime Domain Awareness from space using Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) has been successfully demonstrated in the past, however practical challenges in achieving the necessary area coverage, temporal coverage and spatial resolution for a practical system has eluded wider adoption. Yet demand for Maritime Surveillance has increased in recent years, to protect important maritime energy and communications infrastructure, fisheries, and maritime reserves, and especially for maintaining national security and territorial integrity. A novel approach to the SAR payload design solves these challenges, and smallsat technologies have also matured to the point where a High-Resolution Wide-Swath (HRWS) system …

Development Of Piezo Fast Steering Mirrors For Fso Inter-Satellite Communication, Frank Claeyssen, Arnaud Gilson, Thomas Maillard, David Ferris, Xavier De Lepine, Oliver Sosnicki, Jocelyn Rebufa, Clément Cote, Francis Bortolaso, Pascal Mexe

Small Satellite Conference

To allow faster communication between satellites, Radio Frequency (RF) links are being replaced by laser optical links, often called Free-Space Optical Communication (FSO). Each satellite embeds several optical communication terminals (OCT), each one needing two Fast Steering Mirrors (FSM) for laser beam fine and fast steering. Thus, for some giant constellations, the total number of FSM can reach up to 100 000 FSM. This New Space market induces not only technical challenges, such as good SWaP, but also industrial challenges, in particular reproducibility, cost-effectiveness and low cost of ownership vs Orbit segment. To address these various FSM needs, CEDRAT TECHNOLOGIES …

Modeling Of Supersonic Wave And Shock Propagation Using The Lattice Boltzmann Method, Timothy P. Schroeder

Beyond: Undergraduate Research Journal

The lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) has emerged as a mesoscopic alternative to traditional Navier-Stokes solvers for modeling fluid dynamics offering advantages in computational efficiency, parallelization, and handling of complex boundaries. Despite these strengths, accurately reproducing compressible, shock-driven phenomena remains challenging. This study investigates the performance of LBM in simulating the Sod shock tube problem, a classical benchmark for compressible flow-using both single and double distribution function formulations across one- and two-dimensional lattice stencils. A MATLAB-based solver was developed to model the flow under isothermal conditions and compared to the analytical solution using the L2 norm error. The one-dimensional models achieved …

Multiclass Satellite Payload For Sar, Leonardo Carrer, Davide Giudici, Fabio Gerace, Paolo Falcone, Davide D'Aria, Giuseppe Leccese, Vincenzo Pulcino

Small Satellite Conference

SAR enables reliable all-weather, day-and-night Earth observation. Conventional SAR missions rely on large satellites, high power and costly development cycles.

NanoSat and SmallSat platforms offer faster deployment and lower mission costs, but face strict mass, volume, power and antenna constraints.

A modular multiclass payload allows the same SAR electronic core to be adapted to different satellite platforms.

Distributed SIMO/MIMO operation shares Radar resources across multiple spacecraft, improving scalability, resilience and revisit time. The proposed architecture enables high-performance X-band SAR missions using compact and cost-effective satellite systems.

Vpx/Sosa Systems: Enabling Multi-Vendor Interoperability, Novo Space

Small Satellite Conference

Poster presented at the 2026 Small Satellite Conference

Optimizing Ball‐Milled Composites For Fast Energy Release Under Shock Compression, Siva Valluri, Edward Dreizin, Dana Dlott

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Microparticle additives containing both Al fuel and oxidizer, fabricated by arrested reactive milling (ARM), could potentially increase the power of energetic materials such as HMX because they contain premixed fuel and oxidizer. Optimizing shock reactivity requires exploring a vast parametric space encompassing composition, milling parameters that govern microstructural features such as intraparticle voids and fuel-oxidizer mixing, and the resulting inhomogeneous shock reactivity of individual particles. To present our approach, we used a model composition 8Al⋅3CuO, previously optimized for combustion. We milled powders and prescreened different prepared batches using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) to rule out batches with significant pre-reaction. Then …