Digital Commons Network^™

Alfalfa Nutrient Management Guide, Megan Baker, Matt Yost, Clara Anderson, Grant Cardon, Jody Gale, Earl Creech, Cody Zesiger, Kalen Taylor

All Current Publications

Proper nutrient management is key to maintaining high yields, quality, and stand longevity for profitable alfalfa production. By the time that visible symptoms of nutrient deficiencies have appeared, yield, quality, and economic losses have already occurred. Soil tests provide a proactive opportunity to prepare fertilizer or amendment supplementation before the growing season. Fertilizer applications can greatly improve crop yield and quality and, in turn, greatly increase economic returns.

Thought-Shape Fusion In Residential Eating Disorder Treatment: Cognitive Defusion As A Mediator Between Thought-Action Fusion And Treatment Outcome, Mercedes G. Woolley, Sarah E. Schwartz, Francesca M. Knudsen, Tera Lensegrav-Benson, Benita Quakenbush-Roberts, Michael P. Twohig

Psychology Faculty Publications

An understudied cognitive bias within eating disorder (ED) psychopathology is Thought-Shape Fusion (TSF), which involves irrational beliefs about the likelihood and moral implications of feared outcomes within the context of ED treatment, with little known about potential process of change to address TSF and ultimately promote ED recovery. We propose cognitive defusion as a process of change, a metacognitive process that emphasizes observing thoughts objectively rather than appraising thoughts as absolute truth. We explored whether cognitive defusion, that is, reductions in body image-related cognitive fusion, mediated the relationship between trait-level TSF and treatment outcomes in a transdiagnostic ED sample of …

Electro-Optic Time Transfer With Femtosecond Stability, Joshua Olson, Robert Rockmore, Nathan D. Lemke, Sean Krzyzewski, Brian Kasch

Space Dynamics Laboratory Publications

Optical two-way time and frequency transfer is an enabling technology that has applications ranging from fundamental investigations of relativity to the operation of global navigation satellite systems. While fiber frequency combs have demonstrated the most stable optical links, they are not ideal for applications that require very low SWaP-C. Here, we demonstrate two-way time and frequency transfer using electro-optic combs that have a direct path to full chip-scale integration. This two-way electro-optic time and frequency transfer system demonstrated instabilities as low as 15 fs at 1 s of averaging time. These results show a pathway to highly stable, agile and …

Wild Parsnip (Pastinaca Sativa) Identification And Control In Residential Landscapes, Michael Caron, Taun Beddes, Corey Ransom

All Current Publications

Wild parsnip is a weed that can potentially cause serious injury to gardeners. This fact sheet describes this weed, its lifecycle, and suppression and control options.

Assimilating Satellite-Derived Snow Cover And Albedo Data To Improve 3-D Weather And Photochemical Models, Colleen Jones, Huy Tran, Trang Tran, Seth Lyman

Chemistry and Biochemistry Faculty Publications

During wintertime temperature inversion episodes, ozone in the Uinta Basin sometimes exceeds the standard of 70 ppb set by the US Environmental Protection Agency. Since ozone formation depends on sunlight, and less sunlight is available during winter, wintertime ozone can only form if snow cover and albedo are high. Researchers have encountered difficulties replicating high albedo values in 3-D weather and photochemical transport model simulations for winter episodes. In this study, a process to assimilate MODIS satellite data into WRF and CAMx models was developed, streamlined, and tested to demonstrate the impacts of data assimilation on the models’ performance. Improvements …

Equatorial Low Earth Orbit (Eleo): An Orbital Incubator And Nursery, Siegfried Janson

Small Satellite Conference

Recent research has shown that Equatorial Low Earth Orbit (ELEO) below 500 km has an exceptionally low space radiation environment that is ideal for long-term space settlements. The pressure vessel itself provides enough radiation shielding to enable decades of on-orbit habitation for an individual without exceeding radiation safety limits. My calculations using SPENVIS show that a minimum radiation "Incubator" region exists between 24° inclination at 350 km altitude, which drops linearly with increasing altitude to 0° inclination at 550 km altitude. Silicon-based spacecraft electronics inside a 1-mm thick aluminum hull would have a trapped particle dose rate ~4 orders-of-magnitude lower …

Vulcan Wireless Is Heading To The Moon, Stuart Golden, Kevin Lynaugh, Nathan Moore, Lance Lerum, Travis Wambach

Small Satellite Conference

Vulcan Wireless radios are being deployed across multiple Lunar Landers and Lunar Orbiters. The Lunar radio solutions will be operating the first deployment of the new CCSDS Proximity 1 S-Band profile for the Lunar environment. Also, the software defined radio will be used as a precision calibration source for the upcoming LuSEE Night payload. LuSEE Night is a payload manifested on the CLPS CS-3 task order which is part of the Firefly Blue Ghost Mission Two (BGM-2) to the far side of the moon. In this paper, we discuss key aspects of the Vulcan Wireless software defined radio and some …

Starling Formation-Flying Optical Experiment: Initial Operations And Flight Results, Justin Kruger, Simone D'Amico, Soon S. Hwang

Small Satellite Conference

This paper presents initial flight results for distributed optical angles-only navigation of a swarm of small spacecraft, conducted during the Starling Formation-Flying Optical Experiment (StarFOX). StarFOX is a core payload of the NASA Starling mission, which consists of four CubeSats launched in 2023. Angles-only methods apply inter-satellite bearing angles obtained by on-board cameras for navigation, increasing satellite autonomy and enabling new mission concepts. Nevertheless, prior flight demonstrations have only featured one observer and target and have relied upon a-priori target orbit knowledge for initialization, translational maneuvers to resolve target range, and external absolute orbit updates to maintain convergence. StarFOX overcomes …

Mantis, A 12u Smallsat Mission Taking Advantage Of Super-Resolution And Artificial Intelligence For High-Resolution Imagery, Marina Mercè Cañete Muñoz, Florian Deconinck, Jordi Barrera Ars, Nicola Melega, Camille Pirat, Borja Jimeno Soto, Aubrey Dunne, Léonie Buckley, Juan Romero Cañas, Gionata Benelli, Gianluca Giuffrida, Sam Brooke, Theo Ogier

Small Satellite Conference

The successful launch of the MANTIS mission, on November 11th 2023, was one of the key milestones of this three year long development. MANTIS is a commercial Earth Observation mission targeting the energy and mining industries whose resources are usually found in remote and hostile regions and that require dedicated and high resolution monitoring. The mission is part of the UKSA supported ESA-InCubed programme which stimulates innovation in industry by co-funding industry-initiated projects. The consortium is led by Open Cosmos and includes SATLANTIS as payload provider and Ubotica and Ingeniars as suppliers of the onboard AI capabilities.

The space segment …

Investigated Leak Rates Of As5202 Port K-Port Seals Utilizing Helium Mass Spectrometry, Ryan Plessinger, Tyler Noyes, Stefan Roeseler, Erin Volpe, Elaine Motyka, Jonathan Kweder

Small Satellite Conference

AS5202 port seals provide sealing for a wide range of fluids in which a significant amount are liquids with some in the gaseous phase. The amount of compression of a standard seal geometry (O-ring, C-ring etc.) can often be attributed to its ability to create a seal up to a critical value of displacement. This relationship has been well tested within the respective metallic seal families except for k-port seals. This study aims to test this relationship of compression to leak rate within the k-port seal family to further the understanding of how these seals behave in different operational environments. …

Assessing The Results Of A Space-To-Ground Data Transfer Link Of A 1u Laser Communication Terminal For Smallsats, Johan Du Plooy, Jacob Hejderup, Steven Engelen, Tushar Goyal, Gert Witvoet, Rodof Herfst, Dick De Bruin, Stefano Redi, Floris Van Kempen

Small Satellite Conference

As advancements in small satellite technologies continue to improve in precision and functionality, the volume of data produced has grown exponentially. The existing balance of size, weight, and power (SWaP) in radio frequency (RF) systems is unable to keep up with these advancements, necessitating a new medium for data transfer. Laser-based communications represent the future of data transmission technology, promising to increase bandwidths into the tens to hundreds of gigabits per second and facilitate larger data transmissions to earth. This enhances the versatility, functionality, and significance of SmallSats in data collection missions.

AAC Clyde Space's subsidiary, AAC Hyperion, in collaboration …

Assessing The Results Of A Space-To-Ground Data Transfer Link Of A 1u Laser Communication Terminal For Smallsats, Johan Du Plooy, Jacob Hejderup, Steven Engelen, Tushar Goyal, Gert Witvoet, Rodof Herfst, Dick De Bruin, Stefano Redi, Floris Van Kempen

Small Satellite Conference

As advancements in small satellite technologies continue to improve in precision and functionality, the volume of data produced has grown exponentially. The existing balance of size, weight, and power (SWaP) in radio frequency (RF) systems is unable to keep up with these advancements, necessitating a new medium for data transfer. Laser-based communications represent the future of data transmission technology, promising to increase bandwidths into the tens to hundreds of gigabits per second and facilitate larger data transmissions to earth. This enhances the versatility, functionality, and significance of SmallSats in data collection missions.

AAC Clyde Space’s subsidiary, AAC Hyperion, in collaboration …

Characterization And Far-Field Plume Analysis On The Het-X Hall Effect Thruster, Adrian Vicente, Dan Lev, Mitchell Walker, Nathan Rosenblad, Michael Holmes

Small Satellite Conference

The performance of the Earth Observant Inc. novel 600W Hall effect thruster prototype, designated HET-X, is characterized from 300 W to 1100 W at a facility operating pressure range of 7E-6 to 5E-7 Torr on xenon gas. The performance characterization includes time-resolved measurements of the discharge current oscillations during IVB mapping. A Faraday probe and retarding potential analyzer were used to measure the ion current density profile from −90° to +90° and the ion energy distribution function, respectively. The calculated beam divergence, current utilization, and voltage utilization efficiencies are 92.4%, 85.4%, and 93.6%. The thruster achieves a maximum performance of …

Nmc-1 An Innovative Avionics System For Cubesat And Smallsat Missions, Don Golding

Small Satellite Conference

The space industry is in a transformative period, attempting to balance cost, performance and reliability. Nextage is addressing this issue through our development of a robust, low cost, fully space qualified, FPGA based computer for CubeSat and SmallSat platforms. The Nextage NMC-1 utilizes the state-of-the-art, low power, high performance PolarFire® FPGA. Our architecture incorporates embedded CORE I parallel processing, along with a RISC V soft core that enables C/C++ programming. This architecture supports heritage applications and enables highly deterministic, real-time algorithms at speeds beyond real-time processing performance of even the most advanced microprocessors. Additionally, the NMC-1 offers massive parallel processing …

Automatic Data Processing On The Ground For The 6u Cubesat X-Ray Observatory Ninjasat, Naoyuki Ota, Tomoshi Takeda, Sota Watanabe, Arata Jujo, Amira Aoyama, Kaede Yamasaki, Satoko Iwata, Takuya Takahashi, Yuanhui Zhou, Keisuke Uchiyama, Yuto Yoshida, Syoki Hayashi, Toru Tamagawa, Takao Kitaguchi, Yo Kato, Tatehiro Mihara, Kentaro Taniguchi, Teruaki Enoto, Wataru Iwakiri, Masaki Numazawa, Hiroki Sato, Chin-Ping Hu, Hiromitsu Takahashi, Hirokazu Odaka, Tsubasa Tamba

Small Satellite Conference

NinjaSat is a 6U CubeSat X-ray observatory that observes time variations in X-ray flux through longterm monitoring of black holes or neutron stars and performs follow-up observations of unexpected objects discovered by other observatories. NinjaSat is equipped with gas X-ray detectors (GMCs) sensitive to 2–50 keV. The satellite is operated in cooperation with NanoAvionics (NA) responsible for satellite operation. As a science team, we need to process GMCs’ data and cross-check the power system and attitude of the satellite. We are developing data processing software, consisting of Quick Look software for satellite bus and GMC health checks, and calibration software …

Electro-Optical Lyot Filter Automation, Mitchell Jeffers, Elizabeth Bernhardt, Nir Patel

Small Satellite Conference

Lyot Filters offer solar physicists the advantage of full-disk imagery combined with spectropolarimetry, enabling the observation and analysis of solar activity in detail. This technology not only captures physical interactions on the sun's surface but also provides mapping of spectral characteristics such as Doppler shifts. This capability, along with the extended observational periods afforded by space-based operations, drives the development of the Lyot Filter Demonstration Instrument (LFDI) at NSF-NCAR's High Altitude Observatory

Beyond The Visible: Jointly Attending To Spectral And Spatial Dimensions With Hsi-Diffusion For The Finch Spacecraft, Ian Vyse, Rishit Dagli, Dav Vrat Chadha, John P. Ma, Hector Chen, Isha Ruparelia, Prithvi Seran, Matthew Xie, Eesa Aamer, Aidan Armstrong, Naveen Black, Ben Borstein, Kevin Caldwell, Orrin Dahanaggamaarachchi, Joe Dai, Abeer Fatima, Stephanie Lu, Maxime Michet, Anoushka Paul, Carrie Ann Po, Shivesh Prakash, Noa Prosser, Riddhiman Roy, Mirai Shinjo, Iliya Shofman, Coby Silayan, Reid Sox-Harris, Shuhan Zheng, Khang Nguyen

Small Satellite Conference

Satellite remote sensing missions have gained popularity over the past fifteen years due to their ability to cover large swaths of land at regular intervals, making them ideal for monitoring environmental trends. The FINCH mission, a 3U+ CubeSat equipped with a hyperspectral camera, aims to monitor crop residue cover in agricultural fields. Although hyperspectral imaging captures both spectral and spatial information, it is prone to various types of noise, including random noise, stripe noise, and dead pixels. Effective denoising of these images is crucial for downstream scientific tasks. Traditional methods, including hand-crafted techniques encoding strong priors, learned 2D image denoising …

Development And Application Of Web-Based Interface Ground Station Software (Wings) For The Operation Of Sphere-1 Eye, Tomoki Mochizuki, Yosuke Kawabata, Takeshi Matsumoto, Shunsuke Shimomura, Akihiro Ishikawa, Ryu Funase, Shinichi Nakasuka, Kota Kakihara

Small Satellite Conference

The evolution of small satellites as both technological demonstrators and operational platforms has been significant. However, these projects often face constraints like limited budgets and stringent timelines, coupled with growing mission complexities. To address these challenges, the Intelligent Space System Laboratory (ISSL) at the University of Tokyo developed Web-based INterface Ground station Software (WINGS), an open-source ground station software with a modular architecture that includes front-end, back-end, and database components, as well as a telemetry and telecommand interface (WINGS-TMTC-IF). The paper highlights the application of WINGS in the SPHERE-1 EYE mission, showcasing its capability to customize and rapidly deploy satellite …

Estimation And Control Of Dynamic Mass-Moment Parameters For Spacecraft Attitude Simulator, Oleksii Padun, Ye Lu

Small Satellite Conference

Spacecraft attitude testbed has been a popular platform for the development, testing, and validation of real-time attitude determination, estimation, and control, algorithms. The focus of this paper is the development of a dynamic mass moment estimation algorithm and an automatic mass balancing control system with numerical validations. Two estimation layers are implemented: one for attitude estimation and another for mass-moment parameter estimation. Attitude estimation follows the existing literature of quaternion estimators with a nonlinear Kalman filter. Dynamic mass-moment parameter estimation is formulated as batch estimation with a nonlinear filter. The initialization process of the EKF parameter estimator is enhanced by …

Optasat: An Open-Source, Flexible Software Framework For Small Satellite Operations, Thomas Murphy, Kerri Cahoy

Small Satellite Conference

This paper introduces the Open-source Python Tool for Awareness of Spacecraft and Analysis of Telemetry, or OPTASAT, software for spacecraft mission operations and planning. OPTASAT is modular and extensible, and incorporates multiple tools to contextualize spacecraft data. The increasing access to space is also growing the pool of spacecraft operators. There is a need for spacecraft operations tools that are open source and accessible. The best tools for modeling and understanding the situation of a satellite in space currently have high barriers to entry including cost, learning curves, and complex interfaces. Missions that cost over $100M and last for years …

Edge Node: A Multi-User Rendezvous And Proximity Operations On-Orbit Testbed, Darren Rowen, Joel Rivera, Susan Lui, Joseph Gangestad, Alex Gallenberger, Binh Dinh, Phaedrus Leeds, Noah Weiner, Rudd Johnson, Christopher Day, Alexander Christidis

Small Satellite Conference

Edge Node is a multi-small satellite free-flying, collaborative testbed for formation flight and rendezvous and proximity operations (RPO) under development by The Aerospace Corporation that is planned for launch in 2026- 2027. Edge Node will develop and advance local space situational awareness sensors for CubeSat-scale platforms and facilitate the development and qualification of autonomous on-board RPO software for CubeSats. Edge Node is intended to serve as a multi-user on-orbit facility through which technologies and algorithms can be tested and validated in the authentic operational low Earth orbital environment. Edge Node leverages recent advances in miniature sensor and computing hardware for …

Characterizing A Chip Scale Atomic Clock In Low Earth Orbit, Mikaela Dobbin, Austin Hunter, William Gravel, Conner Parker, Penina Axelrad

Small Satellite Conference

The University of Colorado Boulder has developed an experiment to characterize the behavior of a chip-scale atomic clock (CSAC) in space, conducted on the MAXWELL CubeSat mission. This experiment integrates a CSAC as an external oscillator to the onboard GPS receiver, enabling clock characterization through real-time estimates of clock bias, GPS pseudorange, and carrier phase measurements. These data will demonstrate the CSAC's short and long-term stability and its sensitivity to the space environment.

This paper evaluates the observation of CSAC performance using GPS within the constraints of the MAXWELL mission. The results, derived from tests with realistic orbit and spacecraft …

Beavercube Ii: Using Ai-Optimized Processors On Earth-Observing Cubesats For Autonomous Image Analysis And Intelligent Data Handling, Adam Bahlous-Boldi, Celvi Lisy, Neelambar Mondal, Brianna Ferro, Shreeyam Kacker, Mary Dahl, Madeline Anderson, Kerri Cahoy

Small Satellite Conference

The mission goal of BeaverCube II is to demonstrate autonomous on-orbit image processing and classification using the Xilinx Versal System-On-Chip (SOC). The Versal has 400 dedicated AI engines on an FPGA-based platform, enabling compute-intensive machine learning capabilities. While the Versal can consume over 100 W of power, BeaverCube II will demonstrate its on-orbit function in a low-power, size-constrained system. The system will use machine learning algorithms such as K-means clustering to autonomously assess whether features or changes of interest are present across keyframes.

BeaverCube II has a 1U imaging payload consisting of three Commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) cameras: two identical visible …

Hera Cubesats Trajectory Design And Conops For Didymos Binary Asteroid Characterization, Pâmini Annat, Clément Beal, Julie Verniere, Aurélien Felin, Romain Pinede, Jean Jaubert, Aurélie Moussi, Sébastien Goulet

Small Satellite Conference

The Asteroid Impact Deflection Assessment (AIDA) mission, a collaborative effort for Planetary Defense, involves the DART and Hera spacecrafts targeting the Didymos-Dimorphos binary asteroid system. Their objectives include assessing asteroid deflection, conducting close observations, and demonstrating future mission technologies. DART, launched by NASA, impacted Dimorphos in September 2022. While Hera, an ESA spacecraft, carrying Juventas and Milani 6U-XL CubeSats, will be launch in October 2024 to reach the binary asteroid system after a two-year Cruise. Hera will arrive in December 2026 in order to characterize afterwards the result of the DART impact in terms of reshaping and deflection of Dimorphos. …

Manufacturing In Microgravity And Sample Re-Entry Using A Commercial Rideshare Spacecraft Platform, Katie Gwozdecky, Karan Sarda

Small Satellite Conference

In 2021, Varda Space Industries contracted Rocket Lab USA to design, build, and operate four spacecraft to support an in-space manufacturing payloads inside of a commercial capsule and provide the capsule with a safe return to Earth. This mission was to be the first fully commercial controlled Earth re-entry and recovery of a space-based capsule. Four spacecraft, Winnebago-1 through -4, are to be built and launched on SpaceX Falcon-9 Transporter rideshare launches into sun-synchronous low Earth orbit. Each of these satellites feature Varda’s re-entry payload capsule which will demonstrate varied types of in-space capability from pharmaceutical crystal growth to use …

Prompt Anomaly Detection For Small Satellites In Low-Earth Orbit Constellations: A Machine Learning Approach, Weicheng Qian, Joshua Dejong, Bryan Cooke

Small Satellite Conference

Small satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) constellations are shaping the future of communications and Earth observation. Despite having inherent advantages such as lower latency and faster deployments due to quicker and cheaper access to space, monitoring the large number of LEO satellites imposes a significant burden when considering the long-established methods of human-in-the-loop anomaly detection and recovery. Timely responses to anomalies reduce operational outages and help maximize the availability of the network. Traditional rule-based detection and supervised learning have inherent limitations in monitoring the large numbers of space assets projected to be launched over the next decades because more …

An Evaluation Of Cubesat Orbital Decay Utilizing Adcs, Sanjeev Mehta, Noé Lugaz, May-Win Thein

Small Satellite Conference

Since the early 2000s, the number of nanosatellites launched has shown an exponential trend. As Low Earth Orbit (LEO) is getting crowded with nanosatellites and small satellites, FCC's new "five-year rule" regulation requires space operators to plan disposal through re-entry into Earth's atmosphere in no more than five years after the mission's end. One was to decelerate and deorbit a satellite is by increasing the satellite drag area using active attitude control, which can be used to tactically deorbit satellites to satisfy the "five-year rule".

The atmospheric density in the upper atmosphere (LEO region) widely varies as a function of …

The Framework Makes The Mission - An Analytical Comparison Of Two Popular Nasa Open Source Flight Software Framework Offerings, Sterling L. Peet, Scott M. Gilliland, Jeffrey S. Young

Small Satellite Conference

Selecting a flight software (FSW) framework is a critical part of starting the software development for a mission. Currently, there are two primary NASA-supported frameworks that might be considered as possible solutions: F Prime (F') and core Flight System (cFS). Both of these frameworks share similarities in their focus but differ in their design and assumptions of how an end user might utilize and extend them.

The evaluation and comparison of the discussed frameworks is based on two immersion visits with core development teams. To demonstrate each framework and to compare their implementations, the same two-wheeled robotic explorer reference mission …

Ma61c-Smallsat, Saish Sridharan, Ran Qedar

Small Satellite Conference

The Multipurpose Adapter Generic Interface Connector SmallSat (MA61C-SmallSat) adapter, developed by Space Products and Innovation (SPiN), supports nine interfaces on 28 ports, configuring 11 sensor and actuator groups. The intelligent MA61C-SmallSat is an intermediate layer between satellite electronic components and the onboard computer, facilitating seamless data routing and communication interface adaptation. It was developed for the modular Attitude Determination and Control System (mADCS) project, funded by the European Space Agency (ESA), which aims to create a versatile 'modular-ADCS' subsystem for small satellites. This system integrates the MA61C-SmallSat hardware board, boasting plug-and-play adaptive software for effortless integration and universal ADCS software. …

System Design For Small Satellites In Very Low Earth Orbit, Kashyapa Naren Athreyas, Anusha Banninthaya, Wee Seng Lim

Small Satellite Conference

In the recent years, the very low earth orbit (VLEO) mission concepts are getting popular owing to the advantages it brings. VLEO is considered to be below 400 km in general, and as the satellites orbit closer to the surface, the earth observation data can be more accurate than the data from LEO. The image resolution can be better for the same camera technology, the radio wave applications will experience lower ionospheric disturbances, and the scientific data collection in those altitudes can help to improve the atmospheric models. However, there a significant challenge in orbiting at such altitudes, which is …