Digital Commons Network^™

In-Orbit Commissioning Results Of The Esa Φsat-2 Mission, Nicola Melega, Agnė Paškevičiūtė-Kidron, Nicolas Longepe, Mirko Albani, Louis Dadswell, George Hine, Jacob Bullard, Alessandro Marin

Small Satellite Conference

The commissioning of the ESA Φsat-2 mission marks a significant milestone in the advancement of Earth observation technologies, particularly in the realm of artificial intelligence (AI) and edge computing. Launched on August 16, 2024, aboard the SpaceX Transporter 11 rideshare flight, the Φsat-2 mission aims to demonstrate the feasibility of running an entire data processing chain onboard, from Level 0 to Level 2, showcasing the latest advancements in edge computing and AI. The mission began with the successful separation of the Φsat-2 spacecraft from the launcher, followed by the establishment of communication 90 minutes post-launch over the Troll ground station. …

Advanced Hyperspectral Imaging From Orbit: Achievements And Challenges From The First Year Of Tanager-1, Jeff Guido, Mark Keremedjiev, James Mason, Riley Duren, Judy Lai-Norling, Kirk Seaman, Robert Green

Small Satellite Conference

In August 2024, Planet Labs PBC launched Tanager-1, a small satellite class hyperspectral satellite designed to detect methane point source emissions, developed through the Carbon Mapper partnership. In a short time, Tanager-1 began imaging and demonstrating the exceptional sensitivity of the onboard VSWIR imaging spectrometer designed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The early performance of Tanager-1 signals a significant advancement in remote sensing capability made possible by an innovative public-private partnership bringing together commercial, non-profit, philanthropic, academic, and government entities.

Leveraging JPL-developed technology and Planet’s proven expertise in spacecraft development and operation, Tanager-1 acquires high-fidelity hyperspectral data across the 400-2500 …

Arctic Weather Satellite - One Year In Orbit, Joakim Kugelberg, Niklas Ahlgren, Enne Hekma, Benjamin Jouanneau, Johan Riesbeck

Small Satellite Conference

The European Space Agency's Arctic Weather Satellite (AWS) Proto-flight Model was successfully launched on August 16, 2024. Based on the OHB Sweden’s Innosat platform, the satellite carries a microwave sounder developed by AAC Omnisys. This paper presents the project execution, which balanced a short development schedule and tight cost boundaries, while ensuring that the mission could provide high quality meteorological data. Being a prototype for the design of the satellites to be deployed in the planned EPS-Sterna constellation, the in-orbit commissioning of AWS is crucial to validate the performance of the space segment.

A key objective of the Arctic Weather …

Reaching Full Operating Capability With The Tomorrow.Io Weather Constellation, Scott Williams, Emma Watson, Jan Wicha, Joe Munchak

Small Satellite Conference

The Tomorrow.io weather constellation leverages advances in small satellite technology and the emergence of affordable rideshare options to provide timely, global weather measurements using a constellation of precipitation radars and passive microwave sounders. The focus of this paper is on the design and deployment of Tomorrow.io’s CubeSats carrying passive microwave radiometers known as Tomorrow.io Microwave Sounders (TMS). The TMS instrument design is based on technology transitioned from the MIT Lincoln Laboratory (MIT LL) with technology insertions to improve performance. TMS will achieve full operating capability (FOC) with 12 satellites in a hybrid mix of sun synchronous and mid inclination orbits. …

Starling 1.5 – Space Traffic Coordination Amongst Autonomously Maneuvering Spacecraft, Theodore Hendriks, Matthew Hejduk, Steven Hu, Scott Miller, Caleb Adams, Nathan Benz, Soon Hwang, Terry Stevenson

Small Satellite Conference

Starling 1.5 is a space traffic coordination mission extension to NASA’s successful Starling swarm technology demonstration. NASA partnered with SpaceX to field and demonstrate a space traffic coordination system that allows different satellite owner/operators to rapidly screen trajectories and either claim or refuse maneuver responsibility for mitigating conjunctions, or close approaches, all without human operators in the loop.

Starlink satellites routinely perform autonomous risk mitigation maneuvers (RMMs) to reduce the probability of collision (Pc) for conjunctions with active satellites and other orbital objects such as debris. The NASA Starling primary mission included an autonomous maneuvering capability, which raised the question …

Development Of A Compact Optical Communications Terminal For The Pulse-A Cubesat, Sofia Mansilla, Seth Knights, Natalie Orrantia, Maya Mcdaniel, Daniel Lee, Oliver Shoemaker, Aidan Etterer, Aishani Mohan, Chris Wong, Juan Ignacio Prieto Asbun, Robert Pitu, Logan Hanssler, Annie Shuford, Eliana Schiller, Kira Chin, Graydon Schulze-Kalt, Danielle Zumi Riekse, Mira Singh, Alexandra Yao, Vicky Bardon Soto, Natalie Sauer, Vidya Suri, Tian Zhong

Small Satellite Conference

The Polarization-modUlated Laser Satellite Experiment (PULSE-A) at the University of Chicago aims to demonstrate the feasibility of circular polarization shift keyed (CPolSK) satellite-to-ground laser communication links. The project aims to advance high-speed optical satellite-to-ground communications as an alternative to the traditionally used radio frequencies. PULSE-A thus requires the development of a compact, low-loss optical communications terminal capable of emitting collimated and high-power circularly polarized light modulated at high frequencies. Here we present a design for an optical communications terminal capable of achieving output powers of up to 230 mW at modulation frequencies from 1 to 10 MHz with a maximum …

In-Orbit Reprogramming Of Satellite’S Fpgas, John Cone

Small Satellite Conference

This document discusses the development of a system to reprogram an FPGA that is located on a satellite in orbit. The new image for the FPGA will be telemetered to the satellite and passed as command data to the subsystem containing the FPGA. The method for reprogramming is robust, verifies that the FPGA image was not corrupted during transmission, and does not rely on the current image or functionality of the FPGA.

Small satellites use Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) to interface with the satellite computer and other instruments such as cameras and sensors. These FPGAs are traditionally programmed on …

An Open-Source, Hybrid Communication System Twin And Tool For Cubesat Applications, Julian B. Birk, Spyridon Daskalakis, Haijun Fan, George Goussetis

Small Satellite Conference

This paper presents a digital replica of a satellite communication system. To correctly depict end-to-end connectivity, a rudimentary flight software package around an imaging payload is built using NASA JPL’s F Prime framework. For radio communication, a custom implementation of the AX.25 protocol is built in Python and implemented into a GNU Radio block. In GNU Radio, an appropriate signal processing chain for up and downlink is set up. The resulting flow graph can be used fully digitally, for simulation or be connected to software defined radios for true, over-the-air communication. The Python implementation performs sufficiently well for a low …

Automated Pointing Budget And Reaction Wheel Sizing Tool For Cubesat Attitude Control With Iterative Sensitivity Analysis, Logan Thompson, Matthew Devor, Michael Harrigan, Victoria Coverstone

Small Satellite Conference

Reaction wheels are a widely used solution for CubeSat attitude control, offering precise pointing capabilities without the need for a propulsion system. However, sizing reaction wheels correctly is a persistent challenge due to the difficulty of accurately defining the pointing budget, which determines the required torque and momentum storage capacity. Designers must account for mission-specific constraints, spacecraft mass properties, and environmental disturbances, all of which introduce uncertainty into the sizing process. As a result, reaction wheels are often either oversized, leading to unnecessary mass and power consumption, or undersized, risking performance failures such as saturation. To address this challenge, a …

Conceptual Design Of An Integrated Small Satellite Environmental Testing Platform: Addressing Subsystem Integration Challenges, Benjamin Ochs, Michael Harrigan, Victoria Coverstone

Small Satellite Conference

Environmental testing for small satellites often relies on separate systems to simulate space conditions, resulting in inefficiencies, increased operating costs, and challenges in accurately modeling the complex environment. This paper presents the conceptual design of an integrated testing platform that combines thermal, vacuum, solar, magnetic, navigation, and attitude control simulations into a single piece of hardware to provide reliable mission assurance. The design emphasizes the modifications required to overcome unique interactions between subsystems, enabling simultaneous, realistic environmental qualification of small satellites while reducing cost and complexity.

The fully integrated environmental testing system incorporates a thermal vacuum chamber (TVAC) with an …

Concluding Cysat-1: A Look At The Final Challenges Faced By Iowa State University's First Cubesat, John Elias, Inés Ahedo García, Sydney Schultz, Matthew Nelson

Small Satellite Conference

This paper discusses an overview of the CySat-1 mission, actions taken between its launch and deployment from the ISS, and issues identified in design that impacted the spacecraft’s performance until its re-entry in early January of 2025. The CySat-1 mission was the demonstration of a software-defined radio (SDR) total power radiometer to survey soil moisture. The successful demonstration of the SDR radiometer would have provided basis for future implementation by the SmallSat community by providing an easily customizable radiometer with increased performance versatility. The CySat-1 mission is part of Iowa State University’s (ISU) Make to Innovate (M2I) program, which is …

Cots Implementation Of Magnetorquer-Only Cubesat Spin Stabilization, Joshua Umansky-Castro, Deemo Chen, Om Deshmukh, Haonan Gong, Nicholas Natsoulas, Mason Peck, Andrew Filo, Alex Burke

Small Satellite Conference

This paper presents the implementation of CubeSat attitude control algorithms on commercial off the shelf (COTS) hardware. Cornell’s Alpha CubeSat seeks to spin-stabilize using only magnetorquer outputs and IMU inputs. Extensive software development and testing is carried out to overcome these hardware limitations. This paper shares tools, techniques, and niche considerations when bringing the control algorithm from simulation to hardware-in-the-loop (HITL) testing with embedded flight software. In-depth approaches for magnetometer filtering are discussed, along with software implementation decisions for safe mission operations.

Demonstration Of X-Ray Pulsar-Based Navigation With The Cubesat Astronomical Observatory Ninjasat, N. Ota, T. Takahashi, T. Tamagawa, T. Enoto, T. Kitaguchi, Y. Kato, T. Mihara, W. Iwakiri, M. Numazawa, T. Takeda, H. Takahashi, Y. Zhou, K. Uchiyama, Y. Yoshida, N. Ota, S. Hayashi, S. Watanabe, A. Jujo, A. Aoyama, S. Iwata, K. Yamasaki, H. Sato, C. Hu, H. Odaka, T. Tamba, K. Taniguchi

Small Satellite Conference

This study examines the feasibility of X-ray pulsar navigation with the CubeSat. We developed NinjaSat equipped with gas X-ray detectors sensitive to 2–50 keV with effective area of 16 cm² at 6 keV. We estimate position and velocity of NinjaSat from Crab pulsar observation data by orbital estimation method based on “Significance Enhancement of Pulse-profile with Orbit-dynamics”. As a result, the estimated position accuracy was within 59 km.

Developing A Full System Thermal Analysis Of A Cubesat To Design A Low-Cost Battery Heater System, Owen Nesbit, Sydney Whilden, Deepak R. Mishra

Small Satellite Conference

The Mission for Education and Multimedia Engagement Satellite (MEMESat-1) is a low-budget 2U CubeSat under development by the University of Georgia Small Satellite Research Laboratory. Once launched into LEO, the CubeSat will serve as an FM repeater for the Ham Radio community and will uplink and downlink donor-submitted images.

To verify that all MemeSAT-1 electrical components remain within their operational temperature limits throughout its lifetime, a system-level thermal analysis is performed using C&R Technology’s Thermal Desktop. This software allows for the satellite to be subjected to LEO temperatures and solar radiation, accurately simulating the amount …

Development Of A Polarization-Based Optical Communications Ground Station For The Pulse-A Cubesat, Juan Ignacio Prieto Asbun, Leah Vashevko, Mason Mccormack, Rodrigo Spinola E Castro, Ashley Ashiku, Joshua Johnson, Elizabeth Rosario, Kevin Zamudio, Sasha Malysheva, Nusret Efe Ucer, Qihong Wu, Sofia Mansilla, Seth Knights, Logan Hanssler, Mohammad Hassan, Sofia Cavallione, Nguyen Do, Tian Zhong

Small Satellite Conference

The Polarization-modUlated Laser Satellite Experiment (PULSE-A) is the University of Chicago’s student-led mission to demonstrate an optical downlink at a data rate of 1 to 10 Mbps using circular polarization shift keying (CPolSK). PULSE-A comprises a 3U CubeSat bus carrying a < 1.5U optical transmission terminal and a dual optical-RF ground station. The ground station (GS) system consists of the optical ground station (OGS) and the RF ground station (RFGS). The RFGS is responsible for standard communications and control tasks, while the experimental OGS receives the optical transmission from the satellite’s payload.

To perform satellite-to-ground optical communications, the OGS needs to track, receive, and decode the transmitted signal while providing its own beacon, which allows the satellite to track the OGS. These requirements are accomplished by four assemblies within the OGS: tracking, polarization state preparation, signal decoding, and beacon. The tracking assembly collects, condenses, and collimates incoming laser light from the …

Development Of Mechanical Ground Support Equipment For Small Satellite Thermal Vacuum Testing, Vincent Côté-Larouche

Small Satellite Conference

Small satellite thermal vacuum tests involve securely mounting a spacecraft in a chamber, providing a representative thermal environment in the absence of convection. This study investigates the design of mechanical ground support equipment for supporting a range of spacecraft masses, from cubesats to ESPA-Grande class satellites of up to 500 kg, inside an existing thermal vacuum chamber. A system of four pieces of equipment is proposed to facilitate thermal vacuum testing, while keeping in mind various considerations such as the laboratory cleanroom environment, available floor space, the load capacity of the chamber rails, the thermal vacuum environment and the human …

Extremely Low-Cost Optical Receiver For Extremely Low Resource Optical Identifiers, Ashin Alex, Joseph Ashby, Kevin Walker, Brennan Chai, Catherine Qualtrough, John E. Cater, Nicholas J. Rattenbury

Small Satellite Conference

Space object identification (SOI) is essential for space traffic management, situational awareness, and mission operations. The Extremely Low Resource Optical Identifier (ELROI), developed by Los Alamos National Laboratory, provides a persistent and interference-free identification method for small satellites through a self-powered optical beacon. ELROI transmits a unique identification code via low-power laser pulses, enabling ground stations to identify spaceborne assets without relying on traditional radio beacons. However, the efficacy of the ELROI system relies on the widespread availability of highly sensitive and cost-effective ground-based optical receivers. To address this need, we are developing a low-cost optical receiver capable of detecting …

Finch Eye: The Optical And Optomechanical Design Of A Grism-Based Swir Hyperspectral Imaging Payload For A 3u Cubesat, Iliya Shofman, Mario Ghio Neto, Theaswanth Ganesh, Kenya He, Aidan Armstrong, Ksenya Narkevich

Small Satellite Conference

Crop residue is an important metric used for agricultural land-use monitoring and climate science research. Estimating crop residue coverage is essential to sustainable agricultural practices. There already exist scientific hyperspectral satellites, such as PRISMA and EnMAP, that can be used for crop residue estimation; however, they are very expensive to build and cannot be monopolized by individual farms. This leaves a gap in satellite remote sensing solutions which can be deployed operationally and at the farm scale. We seek to fill this gap by developing a low-cost satellite solution for crop residue estimation. The University of Toronto Aerospace Team is …

Hermes: A Satellite Surrogate Communication Testbed For Ground-Station Validation Using Software Defined Radio And Openc3 Cosmos, Luiz Felipe Bromfman, Gustavo Gargioni, Zach Leffke, Jonathan Black

Small Satellite Conference

Poster presented during the 2025 SmallSat Conference.

Robot Swarm: A Test Platform For Spacecraft Formations, Colbren Fujimoto, Scott Ginoza, Yosef Ben Gershom

Small Satellite Conference

Satellite swarms are transforming space exploration by enabling cost-effective missions and distributed onboard intelligence. Precise formation control is critical for optimized data collection, collaborative sensing, and collision avoidance. NASA’s Starling mission demonstrates how scalable, autonomous swarms enable satellites to operate as a coordinated network in low Earth orbit [1]. This research project offers a practical, cost-effective platform for testing agile swarm formation control using physical robots, enabling testing and validation of formation control algorithms and evaluating their effectiveness. This project tests Interstel’s iCOSMOS-Swarm, a software platform designed for autonomous coordination of unmanned vehicle swarms. The formation includes four robots to …

Prototyping A Sparse-Aperture, Segmented, Parabolic Primary Mirror Telescope For Supersharp, Zoe O. Horvath

Small Satellite Conference

The SUPERSHARP mission concept for large, unfolding, lightweight, sparse-aperture space telescopes is inspired by the ongoing search for life in the universe [1]. The SuperSharp company is developing small-satellite versions of this concept for use in thermal infrared for Earth observation with applications in climate change research [2]. The motivation of my research is to help advance the alignment techniques and procedures of this technology for future applications in space observation at shorter wavelengths; this will be accomplished through the development and alignment of a laboratory prototype of a sparse-aperture, parabolic primary mirror telescope (see Figure 1) using the alignment …

Satellite Navigation With Earth Islands For Scope-1, S. Anand Agrawal, Brandon A. Jones

Small Satellite Conference

Spacecraft optical navigation can deliver autonomous navigation onboard when Earth-based tracking is saturated, obstructed, or impractical. Optical navigation relies on the correspondences between detected and known or mapped features in imagery to extract position and/or velocity, and data-driven methods, which directly leverage collected data to learn, can improve detection performance. This paper presents an initial data-driven Earth-based detection system using islands as landmarks for the SpaceCraft for Optical- based Position Estimation-1 (SCOPE-1) 3U CubeSat, which will be paired on board with a physics-based estimation framework. The system consists of an island detector trained on Earth observation imagery of islands, an …

Simulation-Based Evaluation Of Dual-Mode Propulsion Strategies For Small Satellite Collision Avoidance, Michael Harrigan, Charles Cundiff, Joshua L. Rovey, Victoria Coverstone

Small Satellite Conference

As Low Earth Orbit (LEO) becomes increasingly congested, small satellite missions face growing challenges in executing effective collision avoidance maneuvers under limited time and propellant constraints. Dual-mode propulsion systems, combining high-thrust chemical and high-specific impulse electric modes, offer a promising approach to balance rapid response with propellant conservation. This paper evaluates how such systems can be applied to reduce the Probability of Collision (PC) within constrained maneuver windows using sequential chemical-electric burns.

A FreeFlyer-based simulation framework models dual-mode collision avoidance maneuvers across synthetic LEO scenarios. For each case, user-defined mission parameters, such as lead time, PC threshold, and orbital altitude, …

Skyforge Core: A Triple Modular Redundant Computing Architecture For Small Satellites, Harrison Schmitt, Thomas Mcwatters, Ethan Hoyt, Josh Ellman, Sameer Sikander, Nate Westrum, Jordan Clark, Taebaeksanmaek Jung, Micah Williams, Lauren Myers, Kelden Wright, Matthew Homburg, Alex Roth, Jinran Zhang, Peter Staritz

Small Satellite Conference

As small satellite missions grow in complexity, there is increasing demand for greater onboard computational performance. Traditional radiation-hardened processors, while reliable, are expensive, slow, and suffer from long procurement timelines. In contrast, commercial off-the-shelf processors like the Raspberry Pi offer high performance at low cost but are vulnerable to radiation-induced faults such as single-event upsets. SkyForge Core is an experimental computing system that addresses this challenge by integrating three Raspberry Pi Zero W units into a triple modular redundant architecture. The system executes identical tasks on each Pi, compares outputs using majority voting, and identifies discrepancies. If a failure occurs, …

Utilizing Software-Defined Radio Technology In The Development And Operation Of A Backup S-Band Ground Station For The Onglaisat Cubesat, Yiyu Chang, Loran Chang, Chen-Yu Chan, Yih-Min Chen

Small Satellite Conference

The ONGLAISAT CubeSat, jointly developed by Taiwan Space Agency (TASA), the University of Tokyo, and Ark Edge Space, was launched in Q4 2024 to conduct optical remote sensing. To support downlink operations via S-band, National Central University (NCU) established a backup ground station. A complete lifecycle plan was implemented, incorporating Software Defined Radio (SDR)-based signal analysis, CCSDS-compatible telemetry visualization via WINGS, and end-to-end RF testing. Initial on-orbit signals were successfully received in Q1 2025. Doppler shift and power fluctuation analysis demonstrated system performance and operational readiness. In addition, signal comparison can serve as an alternative method for determining the satellite's …

The University Of South Carolina's Journey To The Launchpad, Patrick Bailey, Wout De Backer

Small Satellite Conference

A student team at the University of South Carolina is currently working to address the state’s needs for astronautics to both students and to the economy through collaborative efforts with other state institutions. This paper intends to cover the mission concept formulation, areas of beneficial technology development in space, and mission objectives that are to be accomplished for both human and technical capabilities within the state throughout the mission duration. The mission concept covers using 3D printing in space for on-orbit manufacturing capabilities, and the need for development of a computer vision algorithm and system for small space debris detection. …

Tracking The Unseen: Identifying Leo Satellite Interference For Radio Astronomy, Sarah Tanveer, Olivia D’Souza, Ali Abedi, Bhuvana Krishnaswamy, Suman Banerjee, Frank Lind, Mary Knapp, Samuel The, Daniel Sheen

Small Satellite Conference

Poster presented during the 2025 SmallSat Conference.

Enhancements And Improvements Of The Radiation Probe - Compact Radiation Probe (Crp), Yihsuan Chou, Loren Chang, Yichung Chiu, Tzuwei Hung, Sinyu Tsui

Small Satellite Conference

As space missions venture beyond Earth's magnetic field, spacecraft face elevated risks from solar energetic particles (SEPs) and galactic cosmic rays (GCRs). Taiwan's first lunar payload—the Deep Space Radiation Probe (DSRP)—was developed to measure radiation dose, dose rate, and SEU rates during Earth–Moon transit. However, flight data revealed limitations in SEU detection and system operation. To address these issues and support CubeSat-class missions, the Compact Radiation Probe (CRP) was developed for the upcoming COSPAR-1 mission.

Northern Arizona Ecological Conservation: Assessing Quaking Aspen Health In Northern Arizona Using Earth Observations, Ikram Morso, Luke Collins, Margaret Cox, Melissa Schwan

Aspen Bibliography

Quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides) forests in Northern Arizona provide critical habitat for endangered bird species and support regional tourism and recreation. However, aspen populations are declining due to a combination of abiotic and biotic stressors. In response, land managers implemented strategies, such as ungulate exclusion fencing, prescribed burns, and stand thinning, but efforts are constrained by limited data on where and when to intervene. This project worked in collaboration with the U.S. Forest Service, the National Park Service, the Arizona Department of Forestry and Fire Management, and Northern Arizona University School of Forestry. The team utilized Earth observations …

Population Analysis Of Cyanobacteria In Rotating Algal Biofilm Reactors, Eric H. Matthews

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Fall 2023 to Present

Algal biofilms have numerous applications in wastewater treatment and bioproduct production. The Sustainable Waste-to-Bioproducts Engineering Center at Utah State University is working to develop rotating algal biofilm reactors (RABRs) to remove excess nitrogen and phosphorus from wastewater effluent while producing biomass for downstream production.

Genetic analysis of algal biofilms on various RABRs was performed to gain improved understanding of the biofilm populations. This analysis focuses on a pilot-scale RABR and how it compares to several other RABRs. Additionally, old methods of genetic analysis filtered out important cyanobacterial populations. A new method was developed to identify the cyanobacteria within the biofilms. …