Digital Commons Network^™

Development Of The Arica-2 Satellite Using Spresense As An Onboard Computer, Nao Urakabe, Takanori Sakamoto, Motoko Serino, Azumi Izawa, Kazuma Kamoshida, Tomoya Ushimaru, Yuki Tsuji, Hiroki Kato, Keiju Asano, Chisaki Iwanaga, Marika Kobori, Kazumasa Hiroshi, Yoshihiro Takagi

Small Satellite Conference

Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are transient astronomical phenomena that emit enormous amounts of energy in electromagnetic waves, mainly in the gamma-ray range, for several seconds to tens of seconds. GRB observations are challenging because of the difficulty in predicting the location and time of occurrence and its extremely short duration. Therefore, it is necessary to notify about the discovery in space and to conduct follow-up observations by researchers. The AGU Remote Innovative CubeSat Alert system-2 (ARICA-2) has been developed to demonstrate a new alert system using commercial satellite network services. ARICA-2 uses SONY’s Spresense as its onboard computer (OBC). We manufactured …

Mechanical Design And Testing Of Deployable Wideband Antenna For Nano- And Micro-Satellites, Logan Arnold, Greg Jovanovic, R. Zee

Small Satellite Conference

HawkEye 360 is an American geospatial analytics company that focuses on Radio Frequency (RF) signals. Satellite constellations comprised of microsatellite clusters use a unique formations to collect RF signals for geolocation. Spectrum-based frequency and geoanalytics are of great use in communication, wildlife preservation, and military defense. The Space Flight Laboratory (SFL)’s work and DEFIANT bus has been vital to the success of the 21 microsatellites within HawkEye360’s satellite constellation. The DEFIANT bus is one of SFL’s satellite platforms that has a mass of 20 – 50 kg, a volume of 36 x 36 x 45 cm, and follows the microspace …

Fcc Five Year Deorbit Compliance Tools For Standard Low Earth Orbiting Smallsats Employing Passive Re-Entry Techniques, Celvi Lisy, Prisha Sadhwani, Kei Chua, Angela Huang, Whitney Lohmeyer

Small Satellite Conference

On September 29, 2022, the Federal Communications Committee (FCC) adopted a regulation to address the growing issue of orbital debris, requiring spacecraft in orbits of 2,000 km or less to deorbit as soon as possible, but within no more than five years after the end of the mission. These regulations will be enforced starting in 2024 and will apply to network providers both licensed in the United States and foreign-licensed seeking U.S. market access.

Given the updated legislation, various communications providers may find that their traditional system architectures are not compliant with the five-year rule. In this work, the authors …

Power System Development Of The Agu Remote Innovative Cubesat Alert System -2 – Arica-2, Azumi Izawa, Takanori Sakamoto, Motoko Serino, Kazuma Kamoshida, Nao Urakabe, Tomoya Ushimaru, Yuki Tsuji, Hiroki Kato, Keiju Asano, Chisaki Iwanaga, Marika Kobori, Yoshihiro Takagi, Kazumasa Hiroshi

Small Satellite Conference

We present the power system development of the 2U CubeSat, AGU Remote Innovative CubeSat Alert system -2(ARICA-2). The main goal of the ARICA-2 project is to demonstrate the real-time alert system of transient astronomical sources using commercial satellite network devices. 1U CubeSat ARICA was launched in November 2021. However, we have not been able to send and receive the data at this point. Therefore, we started developing 2U CubeSat ARICA-2, which is an improved version of ARICA, in April 2022. One of the possible causes of the communication problem of ARICA is the power system, such as a negative power …

Public Opinion Of Space Warfare: A Survey And Analysis, Johnathon Martin, Michael Dodge, Shayne Daku

Small Satellite Conference

In a democracy, public opinion inevitably has an impact on decisions made by national leaders. With this in mind, this research provides survey data and analysis that establishes a quantitative baseline of the public’s general tolerance of space warfare. More specifically, a range of hypothetical scenarios in which an adversary to the United States has acted provocatively were presented and respondents’ willingness to support a first-strike or respond to an adversarial first-strike was measured. Initial study was conducted to determine if the public is more or less willing to support engagement in space as compared to other domains.

Recovery From File System Corruption On The Ops-Sat-1 Experimental Processor, Maximilian Henkel, Vladimir Zelenevskiy, Rodrigo Laurinovics, Omiros Papadatos Vasilakis, David Evans, Georges Labrèche, Dominik Marszk, Sam Bammens

Small Satellite Conference

Recover from radiation and wear induced faults on a spacecraft’s non-volatile memory:

• Regain communication with the processing platform.
• Identify the root cause of the issues.
• Develop mitigation strategies against further corruption.
• Return to nominal state.

Testing Aromatic Thermosetting Copolyester Debonding Characteristics In Low-Earth Orbit, Samantha Betts

Small Satellite Conference

The mission concept proposed seeks to advance the state of the art for on-orbit deployment of joint mechanisms using a family of novel high-strength reversible adhesives known as Aromatic Thermosetting coPolyesters (ATSP). These are self-healing polymers that can be used as a robust reversible adhesive capable of many cycles of reversibility through application of heat and pressure. Their use in orbital deployment could lead to a significant decrease in the complexity and weight penalty associated with deployable mechanisms. Orbital aging studies are being performed to test the material in a relevant environment, but testing of the reversible adhesion has only …

Uhf Ground Station For Satellite Communications: The Design, Build, Test, And Lessons Learned, Anargyros Kriezis, Regan Mah, Linda Hu, Celvi Lisy, Zayn Patel, Utsav Gupta, Bernard Adjei-Frimpong, Whitney Lohmeyer

Small Satellite Conference

The Olin Satellite + Spectrum Technology and Policy (OSSTP) Group was founded at Olin College of Engineering to explore real-world, project-based learning with apprenticeship-styled educational experiences in satellite communications. In 2019, OSSTP was awarded the National Science Foundation (NSF) Cubesat Ideas Lab Grant for the Space Weather Atmospheric Reconfigurable Multiscale Experiment (SWARM-EX) mission in collaboration with five other institutions (CU Boulder, Georgia Tech, Stanford, Western Michigan, and University of Southern Alabama) to develop and launch three CubeSats. This mission aims to serve as a pathfinder demonstration of swarm operations at separation distances of 1-1000 km using differential drag and onboard …

Development Of An Innovative Payload Interface Board For Cubesats, Michael Harrigan, Evan Widloski, Michael Lembeck

Small Satellite Conference

This paper presents a modular, general-purpose payload interface board for rapidly integrating experiment hardware with existing CubeSat control electronics. The PayLoad Support Board (PLSB) provides four configurable power and data interfaces based on the MikroBUS™ standard on a custom-printed circuit board conforming to the CubeSat 1U physical standards. The MikroBUS™ standard has over 1,400 compatible off-the-shelf sensors, interfaces, transceivers, displays, motor drivers, data storage devices, clocks, and other electronic modules, all with a standard socket configuration. Standard 3.3V and 5V power options are provided to each of the interface’s four sockets, and SPI, I2C, and UART communication lines are present …

Development Of Memesat-1 Passive Magnetic Attitude Control Adcs Simulations, Jillian Russell, Sydney Whilden, Deepak R. Mishra

Small Satellite Conference

MEMESat-1 is a satellite mission out of the University of Georgia Small Satellite Research Laboratory. MEMESat-1 utilizes a passive magnetic attitude control (PMAC) system as its attitude determinations control system (ADCS). Due to the fact that MEMEsat-1 is funded by a non-profit, Let’s Go to Space, and does not have restrictive pointing requirements, the PMAC system is an advantageous ADCS solution. PMAC also requires no power to operate as opposed to an active magnetic attitude control. This is important because it allows more of MEMESat-1’s power to go toward payload operations.

Instead, the PMAC system utilizes an internal bar magnets, …

A Low-Cost, Miniaturized, Homogeneity-Optimized Helmholtz Cage For Cubesat Attitude Control Ground Testing, Devdigvijay Singh, Michael Galvin

Small Satellite Conference

Reduced launch costs and increased interest from researchers and the public have enabled CubeSats to undergo significant evolution in the past decade, expanding their applications to include a broad range of fields such as communication, navigation, observation, education, and science demonstration. For a wide variety of nanosatellite missions ranging from Earth remote sensing to astronomy-related measurements and space debris tracking, the development of passive or active attitude control systems (PACS/AACS) is of great importance. Of the various attitude control and stabilization methods for small satellites, magnetic techniques such as magnetorquers and hysteresis rods offer modest pointing and detumbling capability while …

Design Of The Hosted Software Application For The Visors Mission, Ebenezer Arunkumar, Antoine Paletta, Glenn Lightsey

Small Satellite Conference

The VIrtual Super Optics Reconfigurable Swarm (VISORS) mission is a distributed space telescope consisting of two 6U CubeSats that utilize precision formation flying to detect and study the fundamental energy release regions of the solar corona. The inherent complexities and risks associated with two spacecraft operating in close proximity, as well as the unique restrictions of the spacecrafts’ design, make careful autonomous execution crucial to the success of the mission. To address these challenges, this paper outlines the development of the Hosted Software Application (HSA) flight software which manages the Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GNC) algorithms, the payload finite state …

In-Orbit Demonstration Of An In-Space Manufactured Selfie Stick Forsmallsats, Michael Kringer, Christoph Boehrer, Thomas Sinn, Ugo Lafont, Philipp Reiss, Markus Pietras

Small Satellite Conference

The poster presents a demonstration mission of an in-space manufacturing technology to extrude tube-shaped photopolymer boom structures for satellites. On the end of the boom a camera will be mounted to simulate a payload and to observe the manufacturing process. The boom is manufactured in a continuous motion and therefore higher manufacturing speeds are archivable than by comparable additive manufacturing methods. The photopolymer curing mechanism makes the process energy- and packaging efficient which enables in-space manufacturing also for small satellites.

In-space manufacturing will be one of the key technologies for the future space economy. Large and lightweight structures can …

The Doppler Wind Temperature Sensor (Dwts) Flight Evaluation And Experiments (Tes-16,17), Marcus Murbach, Lawrence Gordley, Joe Gubeli, Benjamin T. Marshall, Arwen Davé, Anthony Colaprete, Alejandro Salas, Ali Kashani, Kwabena Boateng, Avery Brock, Malachi Mooney-Rivkin, Stanley M. Krześniak

Small Satellite Conference

The Doppler Wind and Temperature Sounder instrument (DWTS) developed by Global Atmospheric Technologies and Sciences (GATS) is a simple yet powerful tool with the potential to become a new window through which the study of upper atmosphere dynamics can occur. Based around a defense-grade infrared camera peering through a static gas cell used as a scanning spectral filter, a DWTS instrument can infer wind velocities and kinetic temperatures throughout the stratosphere and lower thermosphere. The DWTS achieves this scanning by measuring the induced Doppler shift and Doppler broadening of emissions as they pass through the DWTS field of view (Gordley, …

Engineering Challenges Of A Cubesat Mission Around The Moon: First Steps On The Path To Selenita, Tiago Matos, Luís Loures, Lidia Sato, Victoria Rodrigues, Thadeu Carvalho, Renan Menezes, Bruno Schuster, Denis Vieira, Paull Acosta, Douglas Arena, Ana Carolina Jeronymo, Heidi Haviland, Linda Krause

Small Satellite Conference

Flying beyond Earth's sphere of influence has been part of the main goals in space exploration. Efforts of the Artemis program now encompass different classes of missions, including CubeSats. With the challenges of deep space as mission drivers, planning, designing, launching, and operating a CubeSat for a Moon mission is proving to be a step up in difficulty. In this context, SelenITA Mission is conceived as a science mission supporting the Artemis efforts, planned to operate at Low-Lunar Orbit (LLO), flying below 200 km gathering space weather and geophysics observations, marking the first Brazilian mission to the Moon. This paper …

The Orbital Calibration 2 (Orca2) Cubesat Mission, Brian C. Gunter, Alaric Gregoire, Greg Badura, Christopher Valenta

Small Satellite Conference

The Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech), in collaboration with the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI), has developed the Orbital Calibration 2 (OrCa2) mission in an effort to improve space domain awareness. OrCa2’s external panels have precise and well-characterized reflective properties that will permit various calibration activities from ground-based optical sensors, with the goal of improving the tracking and detection of resident space objects (RSOs). OrCa2 is a 12U CubeSat designed, fabricated, assembled, and tested almost entirely in-house using GT/GTRI facilities. It will be regularly observed using Georgia Tech’s Space Object Research Telescope (GT-SORT). A number of experiments can be …

The Esa Φsat-2 Mission: An A.I Enhanced Multispectral Cubesat For Earth Observation, Nicola Melega, Valentina Marchese, Agnė Paškevičiūtė-Kidron, Bernardo Carnicero Dominguez, Nicolas Longepe, Oriol Aragon Casaled, Irina Babkina, Alessandro Marin, Hano Steyn, Léonie Buckley, Jakub Nalepa, Sofia Oliveira, Giorgia Guerrisi

Small Satellite Conference

As part of an initiative to promote the development and implementation of innovative technologies on-board Earth Observation (EO) missions, the European Space Agency (ESA) kicked off the first Φsat related activities in 2018 with the aim of enhancing the already ongoing FSSCAT project with Artificial Intelligence (AI).

The selected Φsat-2 concept will provide a combination of on-board processing capabilities (including AI) and a medium to high resolution multispectral instrument from Visible to Near Infra-Red (VIS/NIR) able to acquire 8 bands (7 + Panchromatic) provided by SIMERA SENSE Europe (BE). These resources will be made available to a series of dedicated …

Petrel For Astrophysics And Carbon Business, Hiroyuki Kobayashi, Kei Watanabe, Toshiki Ozawa, Kiyona Miyamoto, Yuki Amaki, Moe Yasuda, Keito Otsubo, Haruta Miki, Akihiro Tokuyasu, Daiki Kobayashi, Riku Nishio, Yusaku Ozeki, Katsuki Tashiro, Yusuke Arai, Ryo Saito, Asuka Ohira, Ryotaro Noto, Minori Fukuda, Yoichi Yatsu, Saburo Matunaga, Hiroaki Kobayashi, Toru Nakano, Masashi Uo, Takashi Yoshikawa, Eriko Kusunoki, Yu Murata, Norihide Takeyama, Akito Enokuchi

Small Satellite Conference

A multi-purpose 50kg class microsatellite hosting astrophysical mission and earth remote sensing, "PETREL", will be launched in 2023. In the night side, PETREL observe the ultra-violet sky with a wide-field telescope covering 50 deg^2 for surveying transient objects related to supernovae, tidal disruption events, and gravitational wave events. Our UV telescope can detect the early phase UV emission from a neutron star merger occurred within 150 Mpc. In addition to the satellite observation, PETREL sends a detection alert including the coordinate and brightness of the UV transient to the ground via the real time communication network within several minutes after …

Ninjasat: 6u Cubesat Observatory For Bright X-Ray Sources, Toru Tamagawa, Takao Kitaguchi, Yo Kato, Tatehiro Mihara, Kentaro Taniguchi, Teruaki Enoto, Tomoshi Takeda, Yuto Yoshida, Naoyuki Ota, Syoki Hayashi, Sota Watanabe, Arata Jujo, Amira Aoyama, Yuanhui Zhou, Keisuke Uchiyama, Wataru Iwakiri, Masaki Numazawa, Hiroki Sato, Chin-Ping Hu, Hiromitsu Takahashi, Hirokazu Odaka, Tsubasa Tamba

Small Satellite Conference

NinjaSat is a 6U CubeSat observatory designed for long-term monitoring of bright X-ray sources, such as binary systems between normal stars and black holes or neutron stars. NinjaSat is the first Japanese CubeSat dedicated to astronomical observation, and it is also a mission to demonstrate that even a small satellite, which can be developed quickly and inexpensively, unlike large satellites, can perform excellent scientific observations. NinjaSat realizes the world’s highest X-ray sensitivity in CubeSat missions by using gas X-ray detectors filling the entire space allocated for science payloads. The fabrication of the flight model payloads began in 2021, and testing …

The Cuava-2 Cubesat: A Second Attempt To Fly The Remote Sensing, Space Weather Study And Earth Observation Instruments, Xueliang Bai, Patrick Oppel, Iver H. Cairns, Youngho Eun, Anthony Monger, Christopher Betters, Quinn Musulin, Richard Bowden-Reid, Anita Ho-Baillie, Tiaan Stals, Xiaofeng Wu, Yijun Huang, Joshua Critchley Marrows, Julian Guinane, Zihao Wang, Anne Bettens, Andrew G. Dempster, Ignatius Bramananditya Rivaldi, Brett Carter, Jason Held, Andreas Antoniades

Small Satellite Conference

This paper presents the 6U CubeSat mission conducted by the ARC Training Centre for CubeSats, UAVs, and their Applications (CUAVA) at the University of Sydney. CUAVA-2, the second CubeSat project following the CUAVA-1 mission, builds upon lessons learned from its predecessor. CUAVA-1, the first satellite launched by CUAVA, carried first-generation payloads for earth observation goals and technology demonstrations but experienced communication difficulties. A fault root analysis was performed on CUAVA-1 to inform the design of CUAVA-2. The CUAVA-2 satellite incorporates a hyperspectral imager for applications in agriculture, forestry, coastal and marine environments, urban areas, water hazard assessment, and mineral exploration. …

On-Orbit Results From The Nasa Time-Resolved Observations Of Precipitation Structure And Storm Intensity With A Constellation Of Smallsats (Tropics) Mission, William J. Blackwell, David Crompton, Andrew Cunningham, Shawn Donnelly, James Eshbaugh, Vincent Leslie, Brian Powers, Joelle Prince, Nicholas Zorn, Kerri Cahoy, Julian Chew, Amelia Gagnon, Samantha Hasler, Daniel Adams, Benjamin Kim, William Mccarty, Genevieve Taylor, Stuart Cooke, Michael Grant, Scott Braun

Small Satellite Conference

The NASA TROPICS Earth Venture (EVI-3) CubeSat constellation mission will provide nearly all-weather observations of 3-D temperature and humidity, as well as cloud ice and precipitation horizontal structure, at high temporal resolution to conduct high-value science investigations of tropical cyclones. TROPICS will provide rapid-refresh microwave measurements (median refresh rate better than 60 minutes for the baseline mission) over the tropics that can be used to observe the thermodynamics of the troposphere and precipitation structure for storm systems at the mesoscale and synoptic scale over the entire storm lifecycle. The TROPICS constellation mission comprises four 3UCubeSats (5.4 kg each) in two …

Innocube - Preparing The Fully Wireless Satellite Data Bus For Launch, Tom Baumann, Erik Dilger, Sergio Montenegro, Felix Sittner, Michael Strohmeier, Thomas Walter

Small Satellite Conference

The Innovative CubeSat for Education (InnoCube) mission is a technology demonstrator cubesat mission relying on a fully wireless data-bus, set to launch in November 2024. This paper will discuss the mission objectives, design and implementation of the InnoCube mission with an emphasis on the wireless data bus. The mission is a collaborative project between the University of Wuerzburg and the Technische Universität Berlin in Germany. The mission objectives are to showcase the viability of a fully wireless data-bus for intra-satellite communication onboard cubesats and satellites in general, to provide a platform for testing and validating these new technologies, and to …

Arksat. The First Operational Demonstrator Of Novel Ground Tracking And Deorbiting Technology Towards Active Spectroscopic For Small Satellite System, Samuel Ramon Cano, Cassandra Sands, Charles Smith, Adam Huang

Small Satellite Conference

The ARKSAT Cube-Satellite Missions will be the first student-led satellites in the State of Arkansas and have been developed primarily at the University of Arkansas (UA)-Fayetteville. The primary goal is the technology development and flight demonstration in pursuit of the Active SpecTROmeter for Small Satellites System (ASTROSS), utilizing formation flights of cooperating light emitters (ARKSAT-3E) and receivers/spectrometers. ARKSAT-1, to be presented at this meeting, is a 1U CubeSat that aims to test critical UA-developed subsystems, including a high-power LED (∼ 12,000 lumens) and novel deorbiting balloon. The follow-on ARKSAT-2, to be launched in 2024, will test flight control subsystems intended …

The Aepex Mission: Imaging Energetic Particle Precipitation Into Earth’S Upper Atmosphere, Robert A. Marshall, Grant D. Berland, Joseph Buescher, Siwani Regmi, Richard A. Kohnert, Amal Chandran, Spencer Boyajian, Tom Woods, Harlan E. Spence, Sonya Smith, Michael P. Mccarthy, Christopher M. Cully

Small Satellite Conference

Radiation belt electron fluxes can be enhanced during geomagnetic storms by two orders of magnitude; subsequently, these fluxes decay back to nominal levels in a few days. Precipitation into the upper atmosphere is a primary loss mechanism for these electrons, particularly during the decay phase. Upon impacting the upper atmosphere, these electrons create new ionization, leading to a chemical response that increases NOx and HOx and destroys ozone. Quantifying both radiation belt loss and the impact on the atmosphere requires an accurate estimate of the flux, energy spectrum, and spatial and temporal scales of precipitation.

The NASA-funded Atmospheric Effects of …

Overview And Status Of Agu Remote Innovative Cubesat Alert System-2 On 2023, Takanori Sakamoto, Motoko Serino, Azumi Izawa, Kazuma Kamoshida, Yuki Tsuji, Tomoya Ushimaru, Nao Urakabe, Hiroki Kato, Keiju Asano, Chisaki Iwanaga, Marika Kobori, Yoshihiro Takagi, Kazumasa Hiroshi, Teruaki Enoto

Small Satellite Conference

We present the overview of the 2U CubeSat, AGU Remote Innovative Cubesat Alert system - 2 (ARICA-2). ARICA-2 was selected as a feasibility study phase of the JAXA-Small Satellite Rush Program (JAXA-SMASH) and the JAXA Innovative Satellite Technology Demonstration-4 project in 2022. The main goal of ARICA-2 is to demonstrate the real-time alert system of transient astronomical sources, such as gamma-ray bursts, using commercial satellite network services. The first 1U CubeSat ARICA, which had the same mission goal as ARICA-2, was successfully launched in 2021 by the JAXA’s Epsilon rocket No.5. However, communication with ARICA has yet to be established …

Performance Analysis And Electromagnetic Compatibility Of A Novel Wideband Radio Frequency Remote Sensing Payload, Jacob Von Chorus, Erica Peterson, Nicolaas Handojo, Nathan Cole, Robert E. Zee

Small Satellite Conference

The increase in scale, complexity, and sensitivity of small satellite radio frequency payloads presents challenges in spacecraft level environmental performance testing. The Space Flight Laboratory is developing a novel wideband radio frequency payload for use on multiple satellites as part of a distributed remote sensing system. Qualification of this payload at the spacecraft level is complicated by the range of frequencies requiring analysis, the variety of received signal types, and having to qualify the payload on multiple satellites with differing configurations. This paper presents the system level radio frequency performance testing framework developed to efficiently qualify this new payload consistently …

Design Of A Scientific-Grade Multispectral Imager For Nanosatellites, Joosep Kivastik, Silvar Muru, Meelis Pihlap, Hans Hubert Sams, Madis Kaspar Nigol, Hendrik Ehrpais, Mihkel Pajusalu

Small Satellite Conference

Applications in agriculture, land-cover change, and vegetation phenology, to name a few, would benefit from more frequent high-quality remote sensing data. However, ”Landsat-class” satellites are too expensive for such applications. Therefore, there is a need to augment larger Earth observation satellites with nanosatellites that use scientific-grade imaging instruments. This paper presents the design for the scientific-grade multispectral imager Theia. It is designed for a 5% radiometric accuracy at a ground sampling distance of 33 m at a 650 km orbit while keeping the modulation transfer function above 0.13 at the Nyquist frequency. The camera has reflective optics with an aluminium …

Preliminary Design Of The Darkness Observatory For Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Christopher Young, Phoenix Alpine, Michael Lembeck, Juan Estrada

Small Satellite Conference

The "Dark matter as a sterile NEutrino Search Satellite" (DarkNESS) is a collaboration between Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), University of Illinois Department of Aerospace Engineering's Laboratory for Advanced Space Systems at Illinois (LASSI), and CU Aerospace. Fermilab's project seeks to clarify the X-ray emission spotted by the European Space Agency in galaxy clusters, hypothesized to result from the decay of sterile neutrinos that may be associated with dark matter. Limited by atmospheric interference, ground telescopes cannot discern the weak X-ray signal. A small satellite deployed in low Earth orbit (LEO) outfitted with an advanced Skipper X-ray detector has been …

Development Of Radiation Belt Monitors For The 6u Cubesat X-Ray Observatory Ninjasat, Yo Kato, Toru Tamagawa, Takao Kitaguchi, Tatehiro Mihara, Kentaro Taniguchi, Teruaki Enoto, Tomoshi Takeda, Yuto Yoshida, Naoyuki Ota, Syoki Hayashi, Sota Watanabe, Arata Jujo, Amira Aoyama, Yuanhui Zhou, Keisuke Uchiyama, Wataru Iwakiri, Masaki Numazawa, Hiroki Sato, Chin-Ping Hu, Hiromitsu Takahashi, Hirokazu Odaka, Tsubasa Tamba, Satoshi Hatori

Small Satellite Conference

NinjaSat is a 6U CubeSat-sized X-ray observatory to be launched into the low Earth orbit at an altitude of 550 km, and is scheduled for launch this October. NinjaSat is equipped with two 1U-sized gas X-ray detectors (GMC) and is expected to operate mainly for astronomical observations of bright X-ray objects in the sky, such as neutron stars and black holes.

Since high voltages are applied to the gas cells of GMC, two radiation belt monitors (RBM) will also be installed to protect GMC from electrical discharges potentially caused by excessively high rate of charged particles. NinjaSat RBM will play …

Lumio, A Lunar Meteoroid Impacts Observer, Lorenzo Provinciali, Lorenzo Pattanaro, Giorgio Saita, Ludovica Bozzoli, Alessandro Balossino, Giovanni Fumo, Alessandro Di Paola, Luca Conterio, Francesco Topputo, Vittorio Franzese, Roger Walker

Small Satellite Conference

Accurate models of the distribution of meteoroids in the Earth-Moon system are needed to predict impacts with space equipment and for safe space exploration. The Moon's lack of atmosphere allows for observation of meteoroid impacts: understanding meteoroids is important for studying asteroids, comets, and near-Earth objects.

The Lunar Meteoroid Impacts Observer (LUMIO) is a CubeSat mission designed to detect and characterize meteoroid impacts on the far side of the Moon. It can detect small meteoroids too faint for Earth-based observations. LUMIO operates in a Halo orbit at Earth-Moon L2 using the LUMIO-Cam, an optical instrument detecting visible light flashes. The …