Digital Commons Network^™

A Seismic Prediction Technology For Coalbed Methane Sweet Spots And Its Engineering Application In The Ordos Basin, Zhang Mengbo, Li Fei, Zhang Dong, Peng Jiankang, Cui Xiaojie, Ni Na, Long Shengfang, Tao Yu, Zhu Jun

Coal Geology & Exploration

Objective Deep coalbed methane (CBM) reservoirs tend to exhibit significant tuning effects of thin interbeds, leading to challenging localization of actual coal seam boundaries, limited identification accuracy of micro-amplitude structures in the coal seam roof, and poor stability of the seismic responses of the reservoirs' gas-bearing properties. To address these challenges, this study investigated the No. 8 coal seam of the Benxi Formation in the Mizhi area, Ordos Basin. Accordingly, a method with the prediction of gas-bearing properties as the primary controlling factor was developed for the seismic prediction and comprehensive evaluation of CBM sweet spots. Methods First, the actual …

831sat: A Cubesat Subsystem Platform For Space Systems Development Education, Dominic S. Fucile, George Lordos, James Dingley, Kerri Cahoy, Paul Fucile

Small Satellite Conference

The CubeSat standard has become one of the most popular frameworks for co-curricular and extracurricular student satellite projects, yet its integration into formal curricula for space systems engineering remains limited.

Accessibility concerns:

• Students encountering satellite design for the first time face a learning curve when working with flight-representative hardware.
• Time constraints of undergraduate semesters limit the technical depth covered in a single course.
• Existing educational platforms often lack subsystem flexibility and fidelity needed to deliver an authentic systems engineering experience.

Presented is the 831Sat, a custom single board platform that provides core satellite subsystems:

• Central Processing Unit
• Electrical Power System …

Design And Implementation Of A Semi Automated Uhf Ground Station For Small Satellite Missions: A Case Study From India, Binoop Joseph, Vinayak Manoj, Thomas Francis, Madhav Vinod, Nikhil Jacob, Salih Majeed, Prajin I. R., Meghana Suresh, Salman Al Fariz K., Sijo George, Anish Chandra B. S., Anamika Kamath, Anjay Sudesh, Anurag Reghu, Aravind M. B., Manu Mohan, Ashfaque K. P., Amal Chandran

Small Satellite Conference

Mission success ultimately depends on reliable telecommand and telemetry links between spacecraft and Earth. For small satellites operating under tight power, size and link margin constraints, a technically robust and regulation compliant ground station is a mission critical enabler rather than an afterthought.

This poster presents a case study of a semi automated UHF ground station designed, built and commissioned by HEX20 in Thiruvananthapuram — one of the earliest privately owned and operated satellite ground stations in India — covering the hardware signal chain, the tracking and decoding software stack, integration and calibration, and the regulatory path to operation.

The Quantum Cubesat: A Perspective For Quantum Technology In Orbit, Natalie Pearson, Andrew Kelly, Curtis Talbot, Colin Aitken, Kevin Quillen, Sandy Provan

Small Satellite Conference

Motivation

The ability to measure, control and exploit quantum effects has shown significant potential to outperform classical devices across a variety of applications in computing, sensing and communication. However, quantum devices today typically depend equipment that is large, heavy, expensive and delicate. Bringing quantum capability to space requires a relentless focus on miniaturisation, ruggedisation and applicability. Focusing engineering efforts on the most promising technologies to realise their benefits in orbit is a crucial step in this process.

Feasibility Of Failure-Resilient Swarm Formation Flying And Multi-Beam Coherent Apertures In 10000+ High-Density Satellite Swarms, Sumio Morioka

Small Satellite Conference

Direct-to-Device (D2D) communication links satellites directly to ground terminals without large antennas, supporting future Cyber-Physical Systems (CPS) and IoT. Our earlier work [1] showed that a formation of 10,000+ ultra-small satellites, as a coherent phased-array aperture, closes the D2D link budget. This study asks whether the formation can be operated within each satellite’s available power.

Lego®-Based Cubesats For Space Outreach, Stefan Brandle, Joshua Brown, Evan Smith, Drew Nye, Sydney Reddy, Twidy Kwae, Kaiya Grzesiak, Matthew Roderer, John Hetz

Small Satellite Conference

Taylor University Computer Science and Engineering is building a satellite having a LEGO®-robotics-based payload.

Mission Goals

• Have university students build a novel ELEO satellite
• Demonstrate viability of LEGO robotics electronics in space for short-term low-altitude missions
• Enhance space awareness by capturing the public's imagination through integral use of LEGO in an actual satellite
• Identify partners willing to provide advice and promote this project
• Create additional pathways for K-12 and university student participation in building satellites and satellite-related projects
• Support other space-education organizations through a high-visibility satellite project
• Continue space outreach efforts in the spirit of the ThinSat project
• ThinSat was …

Reacquiring Satellites After Unknown Maneuvers In Sensor Blind Spots: A Physics-Informed Behavioral Framework For Closed-Loop Custody Recovery, Naushad Rahman, Niha Agarwalla, Hardik Patel

Small Satellite Conference

Operational problem

After a maneuver during a sensor blind spot, a pre­-gap catalog state may no longer be operationally sufficient. A null look at GS2 must become evidence for where the object could be­ – and where to task next – before access expires.

Recap: A Study Of Downlink Optimization Methods Using Mms As A Template, Connor Firth, Conrad Schiff, Stephen Kreisler, Alexander Barrie

Small Satellite Conference

Motivations: MMS as a paradigm for downlink optimization

• MMS is a multi-agent mission requiring downlink optimization. ReCAP (Remote Coordination, Actuation, and Planning) assigns ground contacts using auctions.
• Five realistic downlink optimization cases are studied, and the amount of data downlinked is tracked to illustrate ReCAP’s ability to optimize for different criteria.
• ReCAP demonstrates value as a real-time, onboard downlink optimization tool.

University Ground-Station-As-A-Service: Promoting Space It Education And University Collaboration, Daniel Freburg, Will Lewis, Charles Edamala, Phoenix Alpine

Small Satellite Conference

Poster presented at the 2026 Small Satellite Conference

Validation Of Steering Law For A 4-Variable-Speed Single-Gimbal Control Moment Gyroscope Pyramid Cluster Via Spherical Air-Bearing Testbed, Kai Kuo Liao, Chih Ta Wu, Jen Hao Cheng, Po Hsun Yen, Shang Jung Lee

Small Satellite Conference

• VSCMG: wheel speed is commanded with gimbal rate — the extra DOF lets the cluster slide past singularities.
• HIL: a Helmholtz cage replays the on-orbit field and a solar simulator sets the Sun line.
• This work: HIL validation of a weighted-pseudoinverse steering law, 4-unit pyramid.

Design And Qualification Of A Compact, Deployable Dual-Monopole Antenna System For Remote Sensing Microsatellites, Alexander J. Murphy, Bryan Johnston-Lemke, Robert E. Zee

Small Satellite Conference

Spacecraft conducting signals intelligence (SIGINT) missions require highly capable radio-frequency (RF) payloads. While the larger 80 kg-class platforms offer increased payload capacities, strict internal volume limitations persist. These constraints sometimes require stowing instruments, such as the dual-monopole Very High Frequency (VHF) antenna presented in this work, directly beneath the solar wings. This requirement has imposed a strict height constraint on the VHF antenna, mandating a highly compact and reliable deployment mechanism that avoids snagging or jamming during deployment. 

This paper presents the mechanism design and qualification test plan of a novel, deployable dual-monopole VHF antenna system designed to increase satellite …

Intel® Government Technologies Space Products: Leading Edge Compute For Space, Robert Ciccariello, Ricardo Ascazubi, Kyle Dobkins, Nitesh Melwani, Ed Mily, Mike Nassan, Sean O’Neill, Ruchika Singh, Dan Weinstein

Small Satellite Conference

Commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components are unlikely to meet the environmental survivability and assurance requirements to accomplish mission objectives in the harsh space environment. On the opposite end of the spectrum, developing custom space components on leading-edge technologies will often require multiple contractors and lengthy R&D efforts that significantly increase development costs and timelines. Intel Government Technologies (IGT) is introducing a space product roadmap, focused on space grade systems-in-package (SiPs) designed to address the transition from bespoke legacy architectures to low-SWaP, high-performance processing platforms for on-orbit systems. IGT Space Products are derived from Intel’s latest commercial technology and are uniquely configured, …

Recovery Of Grus-1e From Magnetic Torquer Loss Using Data-Driven Open-Loop Attitude Steering, Nader Ganaba, Takanori Iwata, Minoru Kurata

Small Satellite Conference

In typical low Earth orbit (LEO) operations, the inability to remove excess angular momentum often leads to the decommissioning of a satellite. This paper presents the on-orbit recovery of GRUS-1E, a hundred kg class Earth observation satellite in Axelspace Corporation’s GRUS-1 constellation. The recovery followed the permanent loss of magnetic torquer commanding capability, which in turn disabled the satellite’s nominal reaction wheel momentum unloading. In addition, the satellite experienced persistent disturbance torques that significantly exceeded the combined contributions predicted by standard models, including gravity gradient, solar radiation pressure, aerodynamic drag, and the estimated residual magnetic dipole moment. The magnitude of …

Solar-Assisted Battery Charging For The Chipsat Architecture: Chipsat Updates And Validation For The Descent Mission, Mark Lohatepanont, Joshua Umansky-Castro, Val Zeitlin, Matthew Hurford, Mason Peck, Andrew Filo, Alex Burke

Small Satellite Conference

DeSCENT is a suborbital mission to deploy 100 ChipSats from Blue Origin's New Shepard near 100 km altitude. The experiment characterizes ChipSat free-fall kinematics and dispersion, and demonstrates their potential for distributed atmospheric sensing. The updated ChipSat combines rechargeable energy storage and body-mounted solar cells with GPS, sensing, onboard logging, and 915 MHz LoRa communications. Lab testing and high-altitude balloon flights validate integrated power operation and long-range communications performance. Preliminary mechanical testing supports the remaining deployment and flight-verification effort.

Sierasat: A 6u Cubesat Platform For Space-Based Solar Power, Sutharsan Indrakumar, Ahmed Guller, Leann Cwieka, Justin Parry, Minh Nguyen, Kaegan Lucas, Carson Bove, Chaitra Nulu, Myles Thomas, Sophia Jones, Deepak R. Mishra

Small Satellite Conference

Reliance on fossil fuels, combined with the physical limits of ground-based solar arrays, makes a strong case for collecting solar energy in orbit. Earth intercepts roughly 1.4 kW/m² at the top of the atmosphere, but absorption by carbon dioxide and water vapour and atmospheric scattering cut peak surface intensity to about 1.1 kW/m², this results in an over a 20% reduction. While inclination, time of day, and weather restrict that to a narrow band of land for a few hours each day.

The Solar Incident Energy Relay Array (SIERA) is a proposed mission that will create a single 6U CubeSat …

Development Of A Design Tool For 3d-Printable Cold Gas Thruster Systems For Nanosatellite Missions, Mikolaj Szyszka, Katherine Smith

Small Satellite Conference

Currently, there are 5219 Nanosatellites and CubeSats in orbit [1]. A decade ago, this number was only 800 [1], with forecasts predicting a total of 14,000 small satellites in orbit by 2033 [2]. However, out of the ones that are currently operational, only about 5% are equipped with a propulsion system. Omitting the electric and classified thrusters, cold gas systems are the most popular due to their simplicity and ease of operation. This shows a general lack of manoeuvrability and agility within small satellites in orbit. The proposed C.O.N.E tool aims to bridge the gap between nanosatellite manufacturers and simple …

Feasibility Study Of Nofb Propulsion Systems For Multi-Altitude Earth Observation Missions, Jingeon Kim, Eunwoo Jung, Minwoo Lee

Small Satellite Conference

• Earth observation (EO) satellites represent the largest and fastest growing segment of the satellite industry ^[1].
• Higher imaging resolution can be achieved either by enlarging the optical system-which increases satellite dry mass-or by lowering operational altitude, where increased atmospheric drag demands continuous propulsive orbit maintenance^[2].
• At Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO), atmospheric drag increases significantly, requiring a dedicated propulsion system for sustained orbit maintenance.
• Hydrazine (N₂H₄) has been the conventional propellant choice, but its high toxicity incurs substantial handling costs, and its low vapor pressure necessitates a …

Project Minerva: High-Altitude Weather Balloon Cubesat Research Platform, Gannon English, Gabrielle Guirguis, Jose Murphy, Lena Wang, Ethan Yemm

Small Satellite Conference

Minerva is an undergraduate student-led high-altitude balloon (HAB) platform developed to provide repeatable, low-cost, and flight-proven testing of experimental payloads and communications systems in near-stratosphere environments. Originally an atmospheric data experiment, it has evolved into a modular testbed supporting missions for both internal research and external student organizations.

Multi-Satellite Optical Link Scheduling With Direct Nonlinear Attitude Planning, Leif Nelson, Yung-Jai Pomeroy, Daniel J. Garcia

Small Satellite Conference

The Problem:

Low Earth Orbit (LEO) constellations increasingly rely on Optical Inter-Satellite Links (OISL) to route data across dynamic satellite networks. As satellites move through their orbits, communications continuously change due to line-of-sight constraints, link quality variations, and spacecraft pointing limitations. Traditional routing approaches often consider network optimization separately from spacecraft attitude control, creating a disconnect between planned routes and physically achievable communication links. This work addresses the challenge of simultaneously generating communication routes while validating that satellites can physically point toward their assigned target. The result is an end-to-end framework that integrates network planning, optical link feasibility, and spacecraft …

Tracking Assembly For The Pulse-A Optical Ground Station, Rodrigo Spinola E Castro, Ashley Ashiku, Elizabeth Rosario, Juan Ignacio Prieto Asbun, Robert Pitu, Tian Zhong

Small Satellite Conference

PULSE-A is the University of Chicago’s student-led 3U CubeSat mission to demonstrate a space-to-ground optical downlink at a data rate of 1 to 10 Mbps using circular polarization shift keying (CPolSK).

A Cubesat-Based Data Collection Architecture For The Catarina Constellation: Complementing Legacy Brazilian Data Collection System With Lora, Vitória Beatriz Bianchin, Carlos Augusto Porto Freitas, João Cláudio Elsen Barcellos, Gabriel Mariano Marcelino, Talita Sauter Possamai, Eduardo Augusto Bezerra

Small Satellite Conference

• The Catarina Constellation is a Brazilian CubeSat initiative created to enhance environmental monitoring and satellite-based environmental data collection across Brazil.
• The project was named after Hurricane Catarina (2004), the first recorded hurricane in the South Atlantic, which exposed the need for improved space-based monitoring of extreme weather events.
• The constellation aims to expand the Brazilian Satellite Data Collection System (SBCD) by evaluating new communication technologies, enabling a gradual modernization of the country’s environmental monitoring infrastructure.

Cubesats For Climate Change Monitoring (C3m): Demonstrating Interferometric Ir Payloads Scalable To Constellations, Miguel Nunes, Paul Lucey, Noah Thompson, Jharrell Sim, Samantha Mallari, Dennis Sarsozo Jr., Junjie Huang, Jaycee Hasegawa, Mari Murillo

Small Satellite Conference

• Project Objective: Develop a compact, low-power IR spectrometer for a modular 1U CubeSat.
• Mission Motivation: Enable timely monitoring of climate hazards, wildfires, volcanic activity, and greenhouse gases.
• Core Demonstration: Validated end-to-end integration and operation of a thermal IR payload on the Artemis CubeSat Kit.
• Constellation Vision: Establish a scalable, low-cost architecture for high-revisit climate monitoring.

Experimental And Analytical Investigation Of Low-Power Resistojet Performance For Small Satellites, Ryan Mcpherson, Daniel Kichma, Nathan Paes, Benoit Larouche, Robert E. Zee

Small Satellite Conference

• Small satellite missions increasingly require propulsion systems that can deliver meaningful maneuverability within tight limits on mass, volume, and power.
• Water resistojet thrusters are attractive for this class of spacecraft because they are simple, nontoxic, and compatible with typical small satellite power budgets, but achieving efficient performance at low power remains challenging.
• This work addresses that gap through coupled thermo-fluid modeling, parametric trade studies, and experimental characterization of low-power water resistojet prototypes using a low-cost vacuum testbed. 

Power Simulation Framework For Korucusat-2 Using Freeflyer, Sahil Singh, Annabel Rong, Mukund Karthikeyan

Small Satellite Conference

A FreeFlyer-based power simulation was developed for KORUCUSAT-2, a low Earth orbit CubeSat designed to monitor silicon-anode battery behavior in space. The spacecraft model uses body-mounted solar panels with five modules on each of the +X, -X, +Y, and -Y faces. The simulation integrates orbital propagation, Earth shadowing, Sun-incidence angle, ground-station visibility, mode-dependent subsystem loads, and battery-state propagation to estimate electrical margin. Battery watt-hours and normalized state of charge are updated at each 30 s step so that critical, low-power, operations, and transmission modes can be evaluated against stored-energy limits. The framework provides a traceable prelaunch test bench for power-system …

Toward Plug-And-Play Sensor Integration: A Multi-Protocol Hardware Bridge For Nanosatellites, Pawan Kumar, Moritz P. Heimbach, Shayarrn Khatiwada, Jiten Thapa, Marco Schmidt

Small Satellite Conference

COTS sensors speak many protocols; but the satellite bus understands only a few. An FPGA hardware bridge board reroutes heterogeneous sensor protocols (UART, SPI, RS-422, RS-485) to the single communication channel with minimum latency supporting plug-and-play with no bus redesign.

A Proposed Development Process For A Hardware-In-The-Loop Testing System For Cubesat Components, Vahini N. Patel, Victoria Coverstone

Small Satellite Conference

Hardware-in-the-loop testing systems, commonly known as FlatSats, are testbed systems in which spacecraft subsystems, such as the onboard computer (OBC), power system, attitude determination and control system (ADCS), and communications, are laid flat and interconnected as they would be in an actual spacecraft. This arrangement gives easy access to each subsystem, enabling hardware and software testing and troubleshooting without risking fully assembled flight hardware.

FlatSats are widely used throughout the aerospace industry, from government agencies like ESA and NASA to private companies and university research labs, due to their versatility in enabling parallel development. This accelerates timelines and reduces …

Software For The Alpha Cubesat Mission: System Architecture, Development, And Testing Behind Successful Flight Operations, Eric Zhang, Jonathan Ma, Joshua Umansky-Castro, Lauren Greenhill, Duncan Mcdonald, Damian Hackett, Maria Boza, Cameron Goddard

Small Satellite Conference

Alpha CubeSat is a 1U CubeSat designed, built, and operated by a student-led team at Cornell University. Its primary mission is to deploy a free-flying lightsail in low Earth orbit, carrying gram-scale "ChipSat" flight computers as a demonstration of low-cost distributed sensing in space. The spacecraft was built around commercial, off-the-shelf hardware, including a Teensy 3.5 microcontroller as the primary flight computer and a RockBLOCK Iridium modem for communication, and was developed and flown under the constraints that define a student program: a small power budget, a rotating team, limited development time, and an intermittent operations radio link. The CubeSat …

Helio: Ai Solar Weather Forecasting For Proactive Small Satellite Constellation Response, Kylie Nager, James Kirk, Cagri Kilic

Small Satellite Conference

Challenge:

Small satellite constellations in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) operate in an environment directly exposed to space weather while providing communications, remote sensing, positioning, and other critical services. Geomagnetic storms heat and expand the thermosphere, increasing neutral density, atmospheric drag, and orbital decay. These effects are especially hazardous during post-deployment and orbit-raising operations when satellites remain at low altitude with limited propulsion and recovery margins.

Operational Gap:

NOAA Space Weather Prediction Center products provide essential situational awareness, but satellite operators must still translate environmental forecasts into spacecraft-specific decisions. This translation can introduce operational delay particularly when protective actions must be …

Development Of Low-Cost And Mobile University Ground Stations, Michael Cargill, Matthew Watson, Patrick Bailey, Jacob Boutin, Wout De Backer

Small Satellite Conference

Recent years have seen a deluge of university-class small satellite missions, driving an increase in demand for ground stations. SatNOGS is an open-source network of ground stations allowing users to schedule observations on each others’ hardware. Most stations are fixed in-place. Mobile stations lack endurance or are high cost. There is a gap for a low-cost option for groups needing mobility.

Herding Cubecats: Challenges And Lessons Learned From A Student-Led Cubesat Organization, Matthew Verbryke, Samuel Kohls, Nathan Nguyen, Michael Carovillano, Donghoon Kim

Small Satellite Conference

1. What is CubeCats?

CubeCats is a student-led technical engineering organization founded in 2015 at the University of Cincinnati (UC) with the mission of providing its members with hands-on, educational experience in space systems engineering, primarily through the design, development, testing, launch, and operation of flight-worthy CubeSats and High Altitude Balloons.

CubeCats’ operating model differs significantly from many university-based satellite programs:

• The organization is entirely managed and run by students, the majority of whom are undergraduates (UC faculty and staff serve primarily in an advisory role)
• The organization is entirely volunteer-based, with no direct integration into coursework or on-campus research …