Digital Commons Network^™

Faculty Senate Executive Committee Minutes, April 17, 2023, Utah State University

Faculty Senate & Faculty Senate Executive Committee

• Call to Order - John Ferguson
• University Business - Noelle Cockett, President | Larry Smith, Provost
• Faculty Senate Presidency Business - John Ferguson | Boyd Edwards | Maureen Hearns
• Information Educational Policies Committee – April 6, 2023 (no actions | nothing to report) - Paul Barr
• Reports
• Old Business
• New Business
• Adjourn: 4:55 pm

Faculty Senate Executive Committee Agenda, August 21, 2023, Utah State University

Faculty Senate & Faculty Senate Executive Committee

• 3:30 Call to order - Maureen Hearns
• Approval of Minutes - April 17, 2023
• 3:35 University Business - Elizabeth Cantwell, President | Larry Smith, Provost
• 3:50 Faculty Senate Business - Maureen Hearns | John Ferguson | Grant Cardon
• 4:00 Information
• Faculty Senate Committee Assignments - Maureen Hearns
• Periodic College Reporting - Maureen Hearns
• 4:10 Reports
• Empowering Teaching Excellence Annual Report - Travis Thurston | Neal Legler
• 4:15 Old Business
• Committee on Committees Nomination - Maureen Hearns
• Task Force Updates (Divestment, IRD, Team Faculty) - Maureen Hearns
• 4:20 New Business
• Faculty Code 405 original | track changes | final (1 …

A Multi-Tiered Assessment Of Primary Production In Great Salt Lake, Soren Brothers, Melissa Cobo, R. Douglas Ramsey, Wayne A. Wurtsbaugh, Erin N. Rivers

Watershed Sciences Faculty Publications

Great Salt Lake (GSL) is the largest saline lake in the western hemisphere. Despite this, relatively little is known regarding ecological functioning within the lake, including detailed assessments of rates of primary productivity and ecosystem productivity. Analyses of primary production in GSL are complicated by the high heterogeneity of the system, including a broad salinity gradient from near-fresh conditions at the river confluences in Farmington and Bear River Bays to the hyper-saline conditions of the lake’s northwest arm (Gunnison Bay). Further complicating estimates of primary productivity is the possibility of high rates of benthic primary production (by benthic algae and …

How Teachers Conceptualise Shared Control With An Ai Co-Orchestration Tool: A Multiyear Teacher-Centred Design Process, Luettamae Lawrence, Vanessa Echeverria, Kexin Yang, Vincent Aleven, Nikol Rummel

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

Artificial intelligence (AI) can enhance teachers' capabilities by sharing control over different parts of learning activities. This is especially true for complex learning activities, such as dynamic learning transitions where students move between individual and collaborative learning in un-planned ways, as the need arises. Yet, few initiatives have emerged considering how shared responsibility between teachers and AI can support learning and how teachers' voices might be included to inform design decisions. The goal of our article is twofold. First, we describe a secondary analysis of our co-design process comprising six design methods to understand how teachers conceptualise sharing control with …

Attitude Control Systems For Imaging The Moonlit Ground: Development And On-Orbit Updating Results Of Ce-Sat-Iib, Tomoya Inakawa, Shinji Matsuzawa, Nobutada Sako

Small Satellite Conference

Canon Electronics Inc. (CEI) is developing optical micro satellites “CE-SAT” for demonstrating in-house attitude determination and control systems (ADCS) and optical systems in order to achieve high-resolution and high-sensitivity imaging. CEI is now operating two satellites on orbit. The second satellite CE-SAT-IIB has the ability to take images of the ground surface with 5m GSD in the night using an Ultra High Sensitivity Camera (UHSC) and a highly accurate ADCS. The satellite has ability to track the ground with 20 arcsec/s or better of pointing stability, and this makes 100 milliseconds or longer exposure time possible. As the result, the …

Demonstrating New Attachment Technology For On-Orbit Docking, Simon Lee, Kathryn Forhan, Victor Aguero, Kalia Crowder, David Smith

Small Satellite Conference

Cambrian Works has developed eTAP (electric, Thin Attachment Pad) based on the principle of Electroadhesion (EA) as a general attachment technology particularly suitable for the space environment. eTAP addresses multiple in-space applications such as docking, in-space assembly, transportation, refueling, and orbital debris removal. These objectives have received significant attention in recent years, with many new space companies and business models receiving large government contracts and private funding. In this paper, Cambrian Works demonstrates the feasibility of eTAP to support these various missions by 1) examining the quantitative attachment force levels achievable with common aerospace materials under laboratory conditions, and 2) …

Nasa Space Launch System Cubesats: First Flight And Future Opportunities, Russell Lane, Courtney Ryals, Carole Mclemore, David Hitt

Small Satellite Conference

On Artemis I, within the integrated SLS upper stage under the Orion spacecraft, there were 10 6U CubeSats. The spacecraft all had different mission objectives, ranging from studying the lunar surface for water and minerals, landing on the Moon, studying deep space radiation, studying the Sun, studying Earth-Moon LaGrange Point 2, and characterizing a near-Earth asteroid, to name a few. This paper discusses the conditions of the CubeSats’ flight on the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and their deployments. Statistics concerning the 10 CubeSats will be provided relating to radio contact and mission performance. For those still in operation at …

The Rogue Alpha And Beta Mission: Operations, Infrared Remote Sensing, Leo Data Processing, And Lessons Learned From Three Years On Orbit With Two Laser Communication-Equipped 3u Cubesats, Dee W. Pack, Pradeep Thiyanaratnam, Brian S. Hardy, Tom Freeze, John R. Santiago, David Pietrowski, Michael Leon

Small Satellite Conference

The Aerospace Corporation's Rogue-alpha, beta program was a rapid prototyping demonstration aimed at building and deploying an infrared remote sensing capability into low Earth orbit within 18 months. The two satellites and their data were then used for three years as an experimental testbed for future proliferated low Earth orbit (pLEO) constellations. Their launch took place on November 2, 2019, followed by boost and deployment of two identical spacecraft (Rogue-alpha and beta) by the Cygnus ISS cargo vessel into circular 460-km, 52° inclined orbits on January31, 2020. The primary sensors were 1.4-micron band, InGaAs short wavelength infrared (SWIR) cameras with640x512 …

Attitude Determination And Control System With Variable-Speed Single-Gimbal Control Moment Gyroscopes For Nanosatellites, Jordan H. Hsieh, Thomas Yen, Sam Lee, Austin Chang, Luke Hou

Small Satellite Conference

This paper presents a novel Attitude Determination and Control System (ADCS) utilizing Variable-Speed Control Moment Gyroscopes (VSCMG) tailored explicitly for nanosatellites. The VSCMG was realized by spherical motor technology, in which a patented magnetic field design controls the inner rotor and gimbal. Because of the characteristics of the control moment gyroscope, the proposed ADCS offers improved attitude maneuverability and reduced power consumption, addressing the limitations of traditional ADCS solutions for nanosatellites. Furthermore, the adoption of spherical motor technology shrinks the VSCMG into a smaller form factor, which allows the VSCMG to be fitted into a nanosatellite. This research paper introduces …

Esep: An Experimental Onboard Computing System For Localized Capacity Building And Future Philippine Microsatellites, Kenneth John Ibarra, Floyd Ferrant Fortes, Elaiza Pontrias, Victor Joseph Ochave, Gracielle Capardo, Noniel Paul Novabos, Julie Ann Banatao, Marc Caesar Talampas

Small Satellite Conference

The Experimental Science & Engineering Payload (ESEP) platform is a bus and payload system designed to host and perform the functions of the primary components of a satellite bus system. This engineering platform is intended to act as an experimental redundant bus & payload system to the primary Diwata-2 system. This will allow testing of experimental bus and payload modules which will then be the base platform for future satellite developments in the Philippines for small satellites. The bus segment consists of the satellite command & data handling, satellite attitude control & management, and the communications subsystem. Consequently, the mission …

Using Space Domain Awareness Tools And Electric Propulsion To Evade Space Debris, Patrick R. C. Neumann, Steven Despotellis, Hervé Astier

Small Satellite Conference

As more spacecraft use electric propulsion for altitude change, constellation management, and end-of-life disposal, attention is being given to other use-cases such as debris avoidance. While the growing population of all-electric GEO satellites and all-electric LEO megaconstellation satellites have demonstrated successful collision avoidance to date, they either operate in orbits with a smaller debris population (e.g., the GEO satellites) or have power budgets scaled to support high communications throughput which can be applied to propulsion systems as needed[1]. There has been doubt expressed that small spacecraft of more limited power supplies can host electric propulsion systems with sufficient thrust to …

Optical Ground Station For 10 Gbps Or More Leo-To-Ground Link Utilizing Tilba-Atmo For Turbulence Mitigation, M. Meunier, D. Schanne, G. Vallet, A. Beauland, H. Lehec, P. Jian, G. Labroille, O. Pinel

Small Satellite Conference

No abstract provided.

Nasa Operational Simulator For Smallsats (Nos3) – Design Reference Mission, John P. Lucas, Matthew D. Grubb, Justin R. Morris, Mark D. Suder, Scott A. Zemerick

Small Satellite Conference

The NASA Operational Simulator for Small Satellites (NOS3) has undergone significant advances including updating the framework to be component based and expanding the open-source code to include a generic design reference mission to enable advanced technologies. This paper details the changes to the framework as well as a number of innovative use-cases the team is currently supporting such as 1) the expansion of NOS3 to support distributed systems missions in collaboration with NASA GSFC, 2) the integration of NASA JPL’s Science Yield improvemeNt via Onboard Prioritization and Summary of Information Systems (SYNOPSIS) for on-orbit science data prioritization, and 3) the …

Enabling Mission Success: A Student's Perspective On Developing A Ground Station, Sean Svihla, Adrian Bryant, Lucia Witikko

Small Satellite Conference

In recent years, The University of Colorado Boulder’s Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) has grown its SmallSat Operations (SMOPS) program into a large team of students and professionals managing the operations of multiple SmallSat missions. The team responsible for the on-site ground station (GSOPS) includes a small team of students alongside professionals who help manage the on-site UHF and S-band antennas, making use of open-source, commercial, and in-house software. In this process, the student ground station team has adapted the limited time and resources of a single ground station to accommodate the needs and science objectives of multiple …

Educational And Real-World Satellite Mission Operations Center At The Us Naval Academy, Noah Loftis, Ethan Schneider, Christine Maceo, Jin S. Kang, Michael Sanders

Small Satellite Conference

For successful satellite missions at the United States Naval Academy (USNA), a critical element is the
/="/">establishment of a capable and dynamic Satellite Mission Operations Center (SOC). In addition to powerful hardware, flexibility and adaptability allow the SOC to continue to support operations, even as new protocols arise and communication architectures change with the rapid pace of small satellite advancement. Software-defined radios (SDRs) provide the necessary flexibility for the SOC to easily change configurations and network with other ground stations. However, the resulting high-tech, turn-key operations of an advanced SOC tend to alienate students from hands-on learning experiences. The …

Space Station Operations Capabilities In A Shoebox: Marshall Space Flight Center’S Telescience Resource Kit, Jeff Lippincott, Michelle Schneider, Steve Chubb, Sam Digesu, Darren Wallace

Small Satellite Conference

The International Space Station (ISS) has provided the world an unprecedented capability, establishing a continuous human foothold in outer space for more than 22 years now. But maintaining that capability and supporting the ambitious portfolio of scientific research it hosts has required another unprecedented capability – providing ground-based operations support for the crew and a diverse manifest of research payloads, all simultaneously. To help meet this challenge, NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) developed TReK, the Telescience Resource Kit, providing a robust solution for data, command, metadata, and file transfer capabilities. In response to an increasingly wide and diverse need …

Lm Linuss™ - Lockheed Martin In-Space Upgrade Servicing System, David J. Barnhart, David M. Shoemaker, Ellis T. King, Thomas Logue, Michael J. Lavis

Small Satellite Conference

The LM LINUSS system is a pair of LM 50™ 12U CubeSats – each about the size of a four-slice toaster – designed to demonstrate how small satellites can serve an essential role in sustaining critical space architectures in any orbit. Developed using internal funding, the LM LINUSS system performed multiple demonstrations in Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (GEO). The LM LINUSS mission is to validate essential maneuvering capabilities for Lockheed Martin’s (LM) future space upgrade and servicing missions, as well as to showcase miniaturized Space Domain Awareness capabilities. The LM LINUSS mission also demonstrated mature new onboard high-performance processing by Innoflight; …

Drag-Based Formation Control Of Millennium Space Systems Satellites, Sanny Omar

Small Satellite Conference

Aside from gravity, aerodynamic drag is typically the strongest environmental force acting on a spacecraft in low Earth orbit. While often treated as a disturbance whose perturbative effects on the orbit must be mitigated through periodic thruster burns, drag can potentially be harnessed for on-orbit maneuvering.

This paper discusses a practical algorithm for achieving and maintaining a desired separation between two satellites using differential aerodynamic drag. By increasing the drag and thereby reducing the mean semi-major axis of “lead” vehicle, the separation between the satellites is increased. Conversely, by increasing the relative drag on the “chase” vehicle, inter-satellite separation is …

Development Of An Autonomous Distributed Fault Management Architecture Forspacecraft Formations Involving Proximity Operations, Antoine Paletta, Ebenezer Arunkumar, Glenn Lightsey

Small Satellite Conference

CubeSat formations have been identified as a new paradigm for addressing important science questions but are often early adopters of new technologies which carry additional risks. When these missions involve proximity operations, novel fault management architectures are needed to handle these risks. Building on established methods, this paper presents one such architecture that involves a passively safe relative orbit design, interchangeable chief-deputy roles, a formation level fault diagnosis scheme, and an autonomous multi-agent fault handling strategy. The primary focus is to enable the reliable detection of faults occurring on any formation member in real time and the autonomous decision making …

Cubesat Proximity Operations Demonstration (Cpod) Mission Results, Isaac A. Spiegel, Bonan Zhou, Robert Goodloe, Brian Fox, Jeremiah Dimatteo

Small Satellite Conference

CubeSat rendezvous and proximity operation (RPO) technology development is critical for improving the performance and economics of space debris remediation and the inspection, servicing, and assembly of larger space systems. The CubeSat Proximity Operations Demonstration (CPOD) is a program led by Terran Orbital and funded by NASA to achieve autonomous on-orbit RPO with two identical 3U CubeSats, thereby maturing CubeSat RPO technology. This article presents the CPOD RPO guidance architecture and its on-orbit outcomes. The architecture advances the autonomy, fuel-efficiency, and safety of CubeSat RPO through the synthesis of optimization-based control theory and orbital dynamics analysis, with different optimization techniques …

A Novel Approach To Small Form-Factor Spacecraft Structures For Usage In Precision Optical Payloads, Tyler Ritz, Henry Chong, Patrick Kelly

Small Satellite Conference

Precision optical payloads will soon experience a boom in manufacturing scale with the onset of proliferated satellite constellation concepts. Presently, the cost of assembly for a single unit can reach upwards of $500,000. Reduction in recurring engineering and assembly complexity can reduce this figure by up to two orders of magnitude. This paper discusses one potential solution which relies on consistent structural components that are easily manufactured in bulk quantities to facilitate general uses while also enabling high-precision mounting in designated payload slots. This proposed approach combines standardized struts and panels able to be connected and stacked in a variety …

Cmac Smallsat Atmospheric Correction With Scene Statistics: Superior Accuracy In Near Real-Time, David Groeneveld, Tim Ruggles

Small Satellite Conference

The future of remote sensing is imaging smallsats; however, assuring their data utility requires atmospheric correction (AC). Current methods are difficult to apply and often fail to provide accurate surface reflectance retrieval even for the most common levels of atmospheric aerosol loading; this impediment is increasing annually due to wildfires induced by climate change. Closed-form Method for Atmospheric Correction (CMAC), developed for smallsats using Sentinel-2 data, is applicable to all imaging satellites. CMAC uses only scene statistics for automated near real-time AC while bypassing ancillary data that delays existing methods by days. In this paper, data from two research-grade satellite …

In-Orbit Demonstration Of Precise Point Positioning For Real-Time On-Board High-Accuracy Orbit Estimation Of Leo Satellites, Javier Tegedor, James Bartle, Jonathan Ward, Xianglin Liu, Scott Glazier, Pieter Van Duijn

Small Satellite Conference

Satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) are typically equipped with GNSS (Global Navigation Satellite Systems) receivers to obtain real-time positioning, velocity, and timing. Until now, onboard GNSS positioning accuracy in LEO has been limited. Where more accurate state vector estimates are required the raw GNSS data must be post-processed on the ground.

Precise Point Positioning (PPP) is a GNSS positioning technique which allows users to obtain absolute high accuracy positioning. While PPP has been extensively used for precise Earth-based navigation, it has not been used for enhancing the positioning accuracy of satellites in LEO until now.

This paper describes how …

A Decision Framework For Allocation Of Constellation-Scale Mission Compute Functionality To Ground And Edge Computing, Jaime Ramirez, Caleb Royer, Brian Free, Owen Brown, Robert Polutchko

Small Satellite Conference

This paper explores constellation-scale architectural trades, highlights dominant factors, and presents a decision framework for migrating or sharing mission compute functionality between ground and space segments. Over recent decades, sophisticated logic has been developed for scheduling and tasking of space assets, as well as processing and exploitation of satellite data, and this software has been traditionally hosted in ground computing. Current efforts exist to migrate this software to ground cloud-based services. The option and motivation to host some of this logic “at the edge” within the space segment has arisen as space assets are proliferated, are interlinked via transport networks, …

Shielding Considerations For Cubesat Structures During Solar Maximum, D. Laurence Thomsen, Thomas M. Jordan, Larisa Milic, William Girard

Small Satellite Conference

The purpose of this lessons learned paper is to communicate the utility of shielding in small spacecraft planning for the support of mission assurance and reliability. Numerous SmallSats have been flying in polar low Earth orbit for science, communications, technology demonstrations, and imaging with academic, commercial, and government interests. Shielding has been part of mission assurance and reliability from the advent of long duration spacecraft missions. The Shields-1 CubeSat has been operating in polar low Earth orbit since 16 December 2018 with atomic number (Z)-grade radiation shielding and demonstrates shielding effectiveness. Shields-1 has collected a representative example of solar minimum …

Ka-Band Multi-Gbps High Speed Downlink With Electrically Steerable Beam, Jumpei Sudo, Makoto Higaki, Soichiro Inoue, Shinya Nitta, Nahoka Kawaguchi, Takashi Eishima, Dongwon You, Kneichi Okada, Atsuchi Shirane, Takashi Tomura

Small Satellite Conference

With advances in sensor technology and data services, the latest earth observation missions tend to require substantial amounts of remote sensing data to be downlinked to earth stations with shorter delivery times. To meet these demands, AXELSPACE is developing a Ka-band downlink system (AxelLink-Ka) in cooperation with Tokyo Institute of Technology ¹ that combines a broadband Ka-band transmitter and an active phased array antenna.² The prototype of the AxelLink-Ka was found to achieve a data rate of up to 4.2 Gbps with using dual polarizaion of Right- and Left-Handed Circular Polarization (RHCP/LHCP) in the Ka-band (25.5—27.0 GHz) and electrical …

Compact Laser Communication Terminal Architecture And In-Orbit Demonstration, P. Johan Du Plooy, Steven Engelen, Jacob J. Hejderup, Tushar Goyal

Small Satellite Conference

Satellites are generating more data than ever due to more demanding payloads, although communications Down To Earth (DTE) have not experienced the same growth in data rates. Compact Laser Communication Terminals are a promising technology that will increase bandwidths (10 Gbit+) and pave the way for larger data volumes to be transmitted which will increase the relevance of small and CubeSats in space data as service offerings. The in-orbit demonstrator is targeting a downlink data rate of 1 Gbit/s with a range of up to 1000km. A downlink wavelength of 1545nm is used while 1590nm is used for the ground …

Qualification Of Inter-Satellite Link Laser Communication Terminals On Cubesats - Cubeisl, Benjamin Rödiger, Jorge Rosano Nonay, Christian Roubal, René Rüddenklau, Christopher Schmidt, Jan Paul Jakobs

Small Satellite Conference

Free Space Optical (FSO) communications on the rise to replace classic Radio-Frequency (RF) systems in many sectors of satellite communication. DLR has a long heritage in developing Laser Communication Terminals (LCT’s) for LEO satellites. Major requirement for the design of the terminals is the optical characterization. Beside the verification in the laboratory, the terminals must withstand the harsh conditions of launch and space and fulfil all functionalities.

To characterize the LCT’s optical properties, DLR developed and built an Optical Ground Support Equipment (OGSE) which mirrors the functionalities of an Optical Ground Station (OGS), in a small scale, to test and …

Design And Build Process Of A Small Satellite Deployable Uhf Antenna, Alejandro Castro, David Sadowski, Dmitriy Obukhov, Ryan Hiser, Nazia Mozaffar, Brendan Hill

Small Satellite Conference

This article presents a design, development, and testing process of a deployable right-hand circular polarization (RHCP) helical antenna for a small satellite in the UHF band. In the stowed configuration the antenna is 5cm and deploys to an operational length of 74cm. Deployment of the antenna is controlled by a DC motor and once released, extends to its full shape under spring power, a 3-turn jack-in-the-box design. The antenna is tuned and matched to correct frequency bandwidth and features an optical deployment confirmation circuit. The antenna produces an axial mode, with an average beamwidth of 60° and this is achieved …

Signal-Agnostic Technique For Satellite Doppler Correction, Salwan Damman, Nazia Mozaffar, Brendan Hill

Small Satellite Conference

Low Earth Orbit satellites impart a Doppler shift on transmitted signals. This Doppler shift imposes challenges on the receiver design. Optimum band-edge filters can measure the Doppler offset, and frequency-locked loops (FLLs) containing them can correct the Doppler offset. However, optimum band-edge filters require knowledge of the structure of the signal of interest in order to compute the filter coefficients. Prefilter delay-multiply elements can be used to generate a Doppler tone that can be placed in an FLL, but this technique also requires knowledge of the signal structure and is not well suited for frequency shift keyed signals. It is …