Digital Commons Network^™

Nasa Stari Mission: A Formation-Flying Pathfinder For Space Interferometry, Akshat Dubey, Caden Burkhardt, Raven St. Clair, Austin Thomas, Tobey Chang, Shivani Sunil, Jacob Klingler, Bradley Bialke, Hannah Cherry, Adrien Boissy, Yethinder Ragav Lakshmi Kumar, Daniil Voloshin, Michael Meyer, John D. Monnier, James W. Cutler, Ethan Foss, Samuel Y. W. Low, Antonio Rizza, Simone D'Amico, Althea Noonan, Mark Gorrow, E. Glenn Lightsey, Melissa Flores, Alexa Lapinta, Albert Ostoja-Starzewski, Leonid Pogorelyuk, Gautam Vasisht, Kerri Cahoy

Small Satellite Conference

The STarlight Acquisition and Reflection toward Interferometry (STARI) mission is a NASA-funded two spacecraft 8U CubeSat technology demonstrator currently in Phase B designed to advance key capabilities required for future space-based optical interferometers. STARI will demonstrate end-to-end beam transfer by reflecting starlight from one spacecraft to another and injecting the received beam into a single-mode optical fiber when it launches in 2029. Formation flying and transferring starlight at very close proximities (25-200 m) presents GNC challenges such as collision safety, precision position control, and fast, precise beam control. The mission ConOps along with a sophisticated GNC system enables passively safe …

Model To Predict Solar Eclipse Impacts On Cygnss Mission Operations, Zach Wiens, Jillian Redfern, Amanda Alexander, Brian Magee, Sam Jones, William Wells, Caden Gobat

Small Satellite Conference

Launched into low-Earth orbit in 2016, the Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS) mission is a constellation of eight small satellites that studies hurricanes and soil moisture. The spacecraft orbit in a fixed orientation with the instrument pointed nadir and the main solar array pointed zenith. During high beta angle seasons – periods during which the magnitude of angle between the Sun vector and the orbit plane is large – the solar arrays generate less power, so mission operators roll the spacecraft 10-16° towards the Sun. This maintains the battery state of charge above the safe-mode threshold. After nine years …

Software Defined Swarms, Nathan Benz, Scott Miller, Jeff Huang, Sonny Hwang, Todd Sarshad, Edmund De La Cruz, Thomas Magesarcher

Small Satellite Conference

The Starling Extended Mission has demonstrated the transformative potential of software-defined architectures in multi-spacecraft swarms. Building on the original Starling mission, which validated autonomous coordination and networking among small satellites, the extended phase focused on adaptability—updating onboard payload software and software-defined radios (SDRs) to enable entirely new experiments without hardware modifications. This capability signals a new approach: spacecraft swarms can evolve post-launch to meet emerging scientific and operational objectives. 

Central to this extension was the deployment of new software enabling two-way ranging and “reverse GPS” source identification using raw radio frequency (RF) signals. Traditionally, ranging and navigation rely on pre-integrated …

The Space Cognitive Network: From Fractionated Spacecraft To Collaborative Ai-Enabled Space Infrastructure, Owen Brown, Dennis Gatens, Fred Kennedy, John Moberly, Rusty Thomas, Derek Tournear

Small Satellite Conference

Over the past two decades, small satellite architectures have undergone a fundamental transformation — from platform-centric spacecraft, to globally distributed data-centric constellations. This paper traces that evolution and argues that a third shift is now underway: cognition-centric space architectures enabled by artificial intelligence (AI) as infrastructure. 

We begin by revisiting one of the earliest disruptive space architecture concepts: the fractionated satellite. Developed at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in the mid-2000s, the fractionation concept decomposes a monolithic spacecraft into distributed elements. While the original vision emphasized physical subsystem decomposition, the System F6 program ultimately revealed that the greatest …

Scaling High-Resolution Operations: Implementing Automated Anomaly Response In The Skysat Constellation Via Dove Heritage, Hira Nadeem, Shannon Kyle Cabrera Deleon, Alexander Bauer

Small Satellite Conference

As Planet operates the world's largest commercial Earth observation satellite fleet, the transition from manual mission operations to autonomous systems has become a cornerstone of the ability to image Earth’s landmass each day. Planet operates a constellation consisting of hundreds of Dove satellites, approximately 15 SkySats, and a growing number of Pelican and Tanager satellites. As these on-orbit assets grow in both number and complexity, the move toward heterogeneous fleet management has required a unified approach to automation that spans across diverse satellite architectures concurrently and seamlessly. 

Drawing on the robust heritage of its large-scale Dove constellation, Planet has evolved …

Design Mechanism Framework For Autonomous Small Satellite Constellations – A Newspace Outlook, Mohammed Irfan Rashed

Small Satellite Conference

The increasing deployment of small satellite constellations is driving a transition from isolated spacecraft missions toward distributed and coordinated space operations. However, as constellation size and mission complexity grow, traditional ground-centric operational approaches become difficult to scale due to communication limitations, delayed decision-making, and increased operational workload. While autonomy has been widely explored through onboard algorithms and artificial intelligence techniques, there remains limited focus on how autonomy should be integrated into the systems engineering architecture of constellation missions. This paper presents a Design Mechanism Framework (DMF) for autonomous small satellite constellations that embeds autonomy directly into mission architecture, operational logic, …

Satellite Constellations 2026 - Survey, Trends And Economic Viability, Erik Kulu

Small Satellite Conference

This paper presents the commercial satellite constellation landscape as of Jan 1, 2026. It is based on data from the public NewSpace Index (www.newspace.im), which has tracked commercial constellations since 2016 and contained 456 entries by the end of 2025. 

Many constellation operators have launched initial satellites or small batches, but only a few have reached regular launch rates. Deployment has generally been slower than announced, with many projects scaling back plans or delaying timelines. SpaceX has a significant lead, having launched more than 11,000 Starlink satellites. The next largest commercial operators, Planet and OneWeb, remain well below 1000 satellites. …

Development And Pre-Flight Verification Of The 6u Cubesat Vertecs For Extragalactic Background Light Observation, Ryo Hashimoto, Kei Sano, Takao Nakagawa, S. Matsuura, A. Takahashi, K. Takimoto, K. Tsumura, J. R. Cordova-Alarcon, V. H. Schulz, N. C. Örger, D. Nakayama, E. E. Areda, R. J. G. Rosales, T. Fuse, K. Hamada, Y. Otani, B. V. H. Kumar, K. A. Hil, A. R. S. Islam, T. Tome, Y. Yasudao, C. Narongphun, S. Nakagawa, H. Tanaka, Y. Hirose, Y. Iwaki, A. Ikeda, A. Ojika, Y. Oohara, A. Tsumoto, K. Kurosaki, E. Fukumoto, C. Arakawa, H. Masuno, A. Oho, M. Ebisu, I. Jikuya, M. Cho, H. Masui, H. Matsuhara, N. Isobe, Y. Miyazaki, S. Ikari, Y. Yatsu, T. Wada, R. Funase, K. Hirako, R. Hirose, Y. Ofuji Aoyanagi, T. Goto, T. Hashimoto, V. V. V. Rao, C. Wu

Small Satellite Conference

The extragalactic background light (EBL) (Fig. 1) is the diffuse light arriving from outside our Galaxy. Previous studies revealed that the near-infrared EBL is several times brighter than the integrated galaxy light (IGL).

This excess may originate from the first stellar objects in the early universe or from intrahalo light. Their spectra differ in the visible range (Fig. 2), so the visible EBL is the key to identifying the origin.

Ground-based observations are contaminated by foregrounds such as airglow. We therefore developed VERTECS (Visible Extragalactic background RadiaTion Exploration by CubeSat) to observe the EBL from space.

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 …

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 …

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 …

Cubesat Led Transmitter For Optical Communication Downlink, David Hinkley, Sam Pedrotty

Small Satellite Conference

The CubeSat radio frequency (RF) spectrum licensing step has always been long and therefore stressful to developers. With more satellites entering orbit, spectral congestion in the available RF frequency bands has become a problem. An optical-only solution eliminates this problem and provides a path for a lower power and higher throughput data link. The risk of a weather outage drives a solution that requires enough geographically diverse optical ground locations that a clear line-of-sight is always available. The Aerospace Corporation, with funding from NASA, has developed a CubeSat light emitting diode (LED) transmitter and an inexpensive commercial portable optical telescope …

Asynchronous One-Way Range (Aowr) – Alone Positioning And The Applications, Junichiro Kawagichi, Shingo Nishimoto

Small Satellite Conference

The paper first reports the recent operational results of the HOKUSHIN satellite. It explains how our extended code correlation method has performed and provides link threshold information, specifically the demonstrated C/N0 figures. The paper next focuses on cis-lunar space applications, beginning with direct AOWR-alone positioning directly from Earth using three or more small-aperture ground stations. The application employs a ‘Self-Positioning’ strategy. This system operates in cis-lunar space with 3-meter-class ground stations and CubeSats larger than 6U in size equipped with 200x300 mm patch-array antennas on. It enables universities and startups to conduct genuine lunar exploration. The team won the Strategic …

Magdrive Power System For Next Generation High Power Smallsat Needs, Donya Divsalar, Mark Stokes, Thomas Clayson, David Salmon, Patrick Mabin, Aksat Shah

Small Satellite Conference

The continued expansion of space activities across commercial, governmental, and defense sectors has increased the demand for reliable, flexible, and high-performance electrical power systems. In contrast to terrestrial environments where a broad range of power generation and storage solutions exist—space systems remain constrained to limited options, primarily solar arrays and batteries. These constraints introduce significant design trade-offs in mass, volume, and system complexity, often forcing spacecraft architectures to be dictated by available power rather than mission-driven performance requirements.

High-power missions are particularly affected by these limitations. Delivering elevated power levels typically requires either large battery packs or extensive solar array …

Nasa's Small Spacecraft & Distributed Systems: Development And Demonstration Of Technologies Enabling Swarms And New Spacecraft Platforms With Ai And Edge Computing, Jan Stupl, Rodolphe De Rosee, Samson Phan, Michael Gaunce, Bruce Yost, Craig Burkhard, Edward Tagalicud, Roger Hunter, Christopher Baker, Justin Treptow-Miller, Sasha Weston, Luke Idziak, Julianna Fishman, Dorothy Santos

Small Satellite Conference

NASA’s Small Spacecraft & Distributed Systems (SSDS) within the Research and Technology Mission Directorate (RTMD) expands U.S. capability to execute unique missions through targeted investment, rapid development, and flight demonstration of small spacecraft technologies applicable to exploration, science and the commercial space sector. SSDS strategically invests in technology development and on-orbit demonstrations executed across NASA, other government agencies, industry, and academia. The program’s University SmallSat Technology Partnerships initiative awards academic researchers with the opportunity to collaborate with NASA to mature innovative technology. Capabilities aligned with RTMD’s technology shortfalls and interests - power, processing, propulsion, sensors, communications, autonomous navigation, architectures, and …

Intelligence Where Data Is Born: Vision Transformer-Based On-Orbit Change Detection For Earth Sensing, Matthew Morabito, Faries Tadros, Catherine Ordun, Michael S. Sellers, Daniel Wald

Small Satellite Conference

This paper introduces a model framework for autonomous hyperspectral segmentation that couples a foundation model with a supervised segmentation head to enable compact, high performance on-orbit scene understanding. This approach is designed to deliver end-to-end onboard processing, inference, confidence scoring, and prioritization so the spacecraft performs interpretation at or near image collection time and minimizes downlink usage by transmitting only high-value or high-interest outputs rather than full image streams. A key design element is adaptive intelligence over mission lifetime: low-size, over-the-air partial models updates as small as kb-scale enable post-launch retuning and mission-specific refinement without GB-scale data transfer. By reusing …

Flight Test Of The Autonomous Navigation, Guidance, And Control (Autongc) Software On The Starling Swarm, Robert Pritchett, Nathan Stacey, Sun Hur-Diaz, Michael Romeo, Nickalas Cason, Katherine Fowee Gasaway, Nathan Esantsi, Behnam Azimi, Sean Semper, Hossein Mohammadkhan, Grant Hecht, Joseph Patton, Liam Greenlee, Justin Clavette, Alan Cudmore, Ian Hammer, Ted Hendriks, Terry Stevenson, Nahum Alem

Small Satellite Conference

Performing real-time autonomous guidance, navigation, and control (GN&C) functions onboard spacecraft is critical for enabling greater spacecraft autonomy. The autoNGC (autonomous Navigation, Guidance, and Control) software suite is a collection of applications, built on the NASA core Flight System (cFS), that provides these capabilities. This paper presents results from the first flight demonstration of autoNGC, conducted on the NASA Starling mission in 2025. The Starling spacecraft's use of cFS enabled autoNGC to be uplinked and run onboard despite the spacecraft already being in orbit. The flight test had three goals: to demonstrate onboard GPS navigation, onboard state and uncertainty prediction …

Ai For Autonomous Operation Of Small Satellite Missions, Lucy Donnell, Reuben Lynch, Charlotte Crawshaw, Karl Buckley, Robert Field, Steven Kay

Small Satellite Conference

UK space industry partners Craft Prospect Ltd (CPL) and GMV deliver an advanced avionics demonstrator which incorporates cutting-edge machine learning (ML) techniques to enhance on-board autonomy for small satellite space missions. The work is funded by the European Space Agency (ESA), and the delivery partners combine expertise in embedded Artificial Intelligence (AI) and space systems engineering to target use cases for on-board autonomy which offer the best gains for a diverse range of mission types including institutional and commercial Earth observation (EO), navigation, scientific, and lunar exploration missions.

Common technical target applications have emerged as underpinning technologies which enable the …

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 …

Advanced Avionics: Low Swap Hpsc Box For Space Autonomy, Behnam Azimi, Sun Hur-Diaz, Hossein Mohammadkhan, Michael Romeo, Sean Semper, Alan Cudmore

Small Satellite Conference

Objective: To provide a next-generation avionics system built on NASA's High Performance Spaceflight Computing (HPSC) processor technology.

Schott Options For Efficient Design-To-Cost Zerodur® Optical Assemblies With Established Supply Chain Reliability, Florian Gollier, Jesse Bonfeld, Dustin Ruth, Janina Krieg, Thomas Westerhoff, Tony Hull, Jacqueline Caraballo

Small Satellite Conference

Poster presented at the 2026 Small Satellite Conference

Gigabit Ethernet Satellite Bus For Smallsat Applications: Standardizing Cots-Based High-Speed On-Board Data Communication, Lucas Felderhoff, Mathias Reibe

Small Satellite Conference

The satellite architectures of modern missions underline the increasing need to simplify and standardize on-board data buses. This requirement becomes more critical as missions demand higher data rates and greater flexibility.

Swap Optimized, Optical Communications Terminal Concepts For Lunar, Mars, Jupiter And Neptune Solar System Missions, Keith G. Petrillo, Mark Storm

Small Satellite Conference

Trinity: Fibertek's Lunar terminal

• Trinity provides a good basis for providing a low SWaP terminal for deep space communications
• Leveraging Trinity and high-power LiDAR lasers enables communications to 32AU
• Appropriate for deep space small satellites

Co-Optimization Of Optical Ground Station And Network Architecture For Secure And High-Capacity Satcom Ground Segments, Asher Novick, Romain Laigo, Laurie Paillier, Cédric Dautancourt, Julien Samaan, Pu Jian, Olivier Pinel

Small Satellite Conference

Poster presented at the 2026 Small Satellite Conference

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.

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.

An End-To-End Optical And Ethernet Networking Architecture For Next-Generation Satellite Constellations, Gianluca Giuffrida, Francesco Falaschi

Small Satellite Conference

• Modern satellites generate ever-increasing data volumes, increasingly challenging traditional RF links. IngeniArs combines very high speed optical links, up to 10 Gbps, with an onboard Ethernet routing fabric
• Optical data is packetized and dynamically routed for onboard storage or processing, or relayed across the constellation from satellite to satellite until it reaches an available ground station
• The result is reduced time-to-ground, increased contact opportunities, and more resilient end-to-end data delivery across the space and ground segments, despite intermittent link availability

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 …

Multipoint Sensor Constellations Demonstrated On Spear-1 Using Radstar, Black Box, And Fastbus+, Jeff Dailey, Matt Orvis, John Pugsley, Matt Voss, Hank Voss, Nathan Turner, Dillon Embry, Gretchen Barnes, Mike Schuckel, Nathan Daniels

Small Satellite Conference

NearSpace Launch (NSL) has developed and flown both multipoint sensor constellations and hosted-payload smallsat constellations since 2014, supporting missions for educational, commercial, and government partners. These missions enable distributed, multipoint sensing by combining compact sensor suites with persistent, low-latency satellite links and a common, time-ordered data architecture suitable for constellation operations. Recent flight heritage includes 24/7 space-to-Internet communications and rapid Launch and Early Operations Phase (LEOP) telemetry acquisition to support early identification, commissioning, and anomaly response. Most recently, the Space Power and Energy Advanced Reconnaissance (SPEAR-1) constellation demonstrated this multipoint architecture while maturing advanced power-generation and energy-storage technologies relevant to …