Digital Commons Network^™

Preliminary Results From The Chomptt Laser Time-Transfer Mission, John W. Conklin, Seth Nydam, Tyler Ritz, Nathan Barnwell, Paul Serra, John Hanson, Anh N. Nguyen, Cedric Priscal, Jan Stupl, Belgacem Jaroux, Adam Zufall

Small Satellite Conference

CubeSat Handling of Multisystem Precision Time Transfer (CHOMPTT) is a demonstration of precision ground-to-space time-transfer using a laser link to an orbiting CubeSat. The University of Florida-led mission is a collaboration with the NASA Ames Research Center. The 1U optical time-transfer payload was designed and built by the Precision Space Systems Lab at the University of Florida. The payload was integrated with a NASA Ames NOdeS-derived spacecraft bus to form a 3U spacecraft. The CHOMPTT satellite was successfully launched into low Earth orbit on 16 December 2018 on NASA’s ELaNa XIX mission using the Rocket Lab USA Electron vehicle. Here …

Inspiresat-1: An Ionosphere And Solar X-Ray Observing Microsat, Spencer Boyajian, Bennet Schwab, Amal Chandran, Ankit Verma, Priyadarshan Hari, Anant Kumar, Kvln Malikarjun, Yi Duann, Loren Chang, Chi-Kuang Chao, Rong Tsai-Lin, Tzu-Ya Tai, Wei-Hao Luo, Chi-Ting Liao, Chieh-Ju Chung, Ru Duann

Small Satellite Conference

The International Satellite Program in Research and Education’s (INSPIRE) first satellite is an Ionosphere and Solar X-ray observing microsat slated for launch in November of 2019 onboard an ISRO Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle. The microsat has a mission specific structure fitting on a PSLV ring deployer. There are two payloads aboard with two different science objectives. The Compact Ionosphere Probe (CIP) will take in-situ measurements of ion density, composition, temperature, velocity, and electron temperature. The CIP is a smaller version of the Advanced Ionosphere Probe (AIP, both developed in Taiwan) currently operating onboard the FORMOSat-5. This instrument is capable of …

Cheops Launch In 2019! – Payload Capabilities And In-Orbit Commissioning Preview, Thomas Beck, Andrea Fortier, Virginie Cessa, Christopher Broeg, William Benz, Nicola Rando, Joel Asquier, Carlos Corral Van Damme, K. Isaak, F. Ratti, F. Safa, R. Southworth, A. Borges, D. Cortes, D. De Miguel, R. Palacios, F. Wildi, B. Chazelas, A. Deline, M. Beck

Small Satellite Conference

ESA Science Programme Committee (SPC) selected CHEOPS as the first small class science mission in 2012. CHEOPS is considered as a pilot case for the implementation of “small science missions” and its success is key for the continuation of fast-paced, small missions. The mission has been developed and brought into a flight readiness state within 5-6 years from selection, which is about half the time of other ESA missions. This paper focuses on the CHEOPS payload and its predicted capabilities. The 300mm effective aperture Ritchey-Chretien telescope provided by the CHEOPS consortium has been tested and characterized on ground in a …

System Design Of The Miniaturized Distributed Occulter/Telescope (Mdot) Science Mission, Simone D'Amico, Adam Koenig, Bruce Macintosh, David Mauro

Small Satellite Conference

The miniaturized Distributed Occulter Telescope (mDOT) will provide unprecedented detection and direct measurements of brightness of extrasolar dust disks at short visible to ultraviolet wavelengths. The baseline mission will observe over 15 targets using a starshade for high-contrast imaging, blocking the target star with a specially shaped free-flying occulter to allow nearby objects to be detected. mDOT operates on a much smaller scale than flagship NASA missions, with an autonomous formation of two small satellites in sun-synchronous low Earth orbit. An occulter-smallsat (246kg, 192W) carries a precisely manufactured 3m-diameter starshade and a telescope-cubesat (6U, 12kg, 40W) carries a 10cm-diameter telescope. …

Cheops: The Esa Mission For Exo-Planets Characterization Ready For Launch, Joel Asquier, Nicola Rando, Carlos Corral Van Damme, Francesco Ratti, K. Isaak, R. Southworth, F. Safa, C. Broeg, T. Beck, W. Benz, A. Borges, D. Cortes, R. Palacios

Small Satellite Conference

The European Space Agency (ESA) Science Programme Committee (SPC) selected CHEOPS (Characterizing Exoplanets Satellite) in October 2012 as the first Small-class mission (S1) within the Agency’s Scientific Programme. It is considered as a pilot case for implementing “small science missions” in the agency with the following requirements: science driven mission selected through an open Call; an implementation cycle, from the Call to launch, drastically shorter than for Medium-class (M) and Large-class (L) missions; a strict cost-cap to ESA, with possibly higher Member States involvement than for M or L missions.

The CHEOPS mission is devoted to the characterization of known …

Smallsat Manufacturing; The Spire "Constant Npi" Model, Daniel Bryce, Jeroen Cappaert

Small Satellite Conference

Producing 100 of anything in 1 year is not considered high volume in most businesses, but in the satellite manufacturing world it is, even if those satellites are 3U cubesats. The additional complications of a variable launch schedule and the need to launch the latest hardware drives a need for a robust but agile process. As with everything at Spire we are addressing this problem with an iterative approach to the 4 main requirements. These are not serially dependant steps, but a group of parallel iterations.

First Results From Halosat – A Cubesat To Study The Hot Galactic Halo, Philip Kaaret, Anna Zajczyk, Daniel Larocca, D. L. Kirchner, W. T. Robison, Jesse Bluem, W. Fuelberth, H. Gulick, J. Haworth, R. Mccurdy, D. Miles, Rebecca Ringuette, T. J. Roth, E. Silich, R. Wearmouth, C. Whitaker, K. W. White, Keith Jahoda, Thomas E. Johnson, M. Matthews, L. H. Santos, B. Dingwall, Steve Schneider, C. Esser, T. Golden, Doug Laczkowski, Kip D. Kuntz, D. Koutroumpa

Small Satellite Conference

HaloSat is the first CubeSat for astrophysics funded by NASA's Science Mission Directorate and is designed to map soft X-ray oxygen line emission across the sky in order to constrain the mass and spatial distribution of hot gas in the Milky Way. HaloSat will help determine if hot halos with temperatures near a million degrees bound to galaxies make a significant contribution to the cosmological budget of the normal matter (baryons). HaloSat was deployed from the International Space Station in July 2018 and began routine science operations in October 2018. We describe the on-orbit performance including calibration of the X-ray …

Marco: Flight Review And Lessons Learned, Andrew T. Klesh, John Baker, Joel Krajewski

Small Satellite Conference

No abstract provided.

Improvements In Attitude Determination And Control Of The Small Satellite Flying Laptop, Steffen Gaisser, Ulrich Mohr, Jonas Keim, Daniel Triloff, Sabine Klinkner

Small Satellite Conference

Precise attitude control is a key factor of many payloads with high ground resolutions, small fields of view or narrow beams such as an optical data downlink. The small satellite Flying Laptop (FLP), launched in July 2017, was developed by graduate and undergraduate students at the Institute of Space Systems of the University of Stuttgart with support by the space industry and research institutions. The satellite is three-axis stabilized with reaction wheels as main actuators. FLP is equipped with the OSIRIS optical data downlink which was built by the German Aerospace Center (DLR). As this instrument is body mounted on …

Mascot: Communications With A Small Probe On Ryugu Asteroid, Clement Dudal, Aurelie Moussi-Soffys, Tetsuo Yoshimitsu, Federico Cordero, Norbert Toth, Christian Grimm, Michael Wrasmann, Tra-Mi Ho

Small Satellite Conference

On October 3rd, 2018 and after a 4-year travel into space attached to the Japanese probe Hayabusa-2, the German French probe MASCOT, the size of a big shoebox, landed on the asteroid Ryugu. The objective was to study in-situ the structure of the asteroid. The article focuses on the communication subsystem of the mission providing a radiofrequency link between Hayabusa-2 and MASCOT. This subsystem, including the transceivers, the harness, the antennae and the onboard intelligence has been at the heart of a multinational team to provide the best conditions for MASCOT data to be transmitted. The first part of the …

The Spectral Ocean Color Imager (Spoc) – An Adjustable Multispectral Imager, David L. Cotten, Nicholas Neel, Deepak Mishra, Marguerite Madden, Caleb Adams, Susanne Ullrich, Adrian Burd, Malcolm Adams, Kaitlyn Summey, Casper Versteeg, Jackson Parker, Fred Beyette

Small Satellite Conference

SPOC (SPectral Ocean Color) is a 3U small satellite mission that will use an adjustable multispectral imager to map sensitive coastal regions and off coast water quality of Georgia and beyond. SPOC is being developed by the University of Georgia’s (UGA) Small Satellite Research Laboratory (SSRL) through NASA’s Undergraduate Student Instrument Project (USIP). UGA is working with Cloudland Instruments to develop a small scale (< 1000 >cm3) multispectral imager, ranging from 400-850nm, for Earth science applications which will fly as part of the NASA CubeSat Launch Initiative.

The project is UGA’s first satellite mission and is built by a team of …

Neutron-1 Mission: Low Earth Orbit Neutron Flux Detection And Cosmos Mission Operations Technology Demonstration, Miguel A. Nunes, Lloyd French, Peter A. J. Englert, Eric Pilger, Lance Yoneshige, Isaac Rodrigues, Yosef Ben Gershom, Amber Imai-Hong, Kasey Hagi, Craig Opie, Luke P. Flynn, Craig Hardgrove, Bob Roebuck

Small Satellite Conference

The Neutron-1 mission is scheduled to launch on ELaNa 25 during the Fall of 2019. The 3U CubeSat will measure low energy neutron flux in Low Earth Orbit (LEO). The CubeSat was developed by the Hawaii Space Flight Laboratory (HSFL) at the University of Hawaii at Manoa (UHM). The science payload, a small neutron detector developed by Arizona State University (ASU) for the LunaH-Map, will focus on measurements of low energy secondary neutrons, one of the components of the LEO neutron environment. In addition, this mission presents an excellent opportunity to establish flight heritage and demonstrate the technological capabilities of …

Simulation-To-Flight 1 (Stf-1): Automating The Planning, Scheduling, Assessment And Data Processing/Reduction For A Small Satellite, Mark Suder, Justin Morris, Scott Zemerick, Matthew Grubb, John Lucas

Small Satellite Conference

On December 16, 2019, a 3-U CubeSat named STF-1 launched as West Virginia’s first spacecraft. This event marked the culmination of a run-up to launch involving the production of the spacecraft, creation/configuration of command and control infrastructure, and the evolution of its co-creation, the NASA Operational Simulator for Small Satellites (NOS3). This event also marked the beginning of a new phase: operations. While plans, procedures, and infrastructure were already in place or started for operations, many lessons were learned during the operations phase, especially during early operations (first month/commissioning phase). Additional plans, procedures, and infrastructure, especially related to communication planning …

Needle In A Haystack: Finding Two S-Band Cubesats In A Swarm Of 64 Within 24 Hours, Kasandra O'Malia, Gary Stuart, Katherine Fackrell, Heather Powner, Gregg Leisman, Michele Wallner, Giovanni Minelli

Small Satellite Conference

In the past few years we have witnessed the ascension of rideshare missions, breaking records again and again for the total number of satellites released on a single launch. Such large swarms of spacecraft make it difficult for the Combined Space Operations Center (CSpOC) to identify satellite orbits until days to weeks after launch. For the SSO-A launch in December 2018, it took 11 days to catalog all 64 objects. While satellites should be designed to survive without ground contact for that long, for most missions, making contact and assessing vehicle state of health during early orbit operations is critical, …

The Low-Latitude Ionosphere/Thermosphere Enhancements In Density (Llited) Mission, Rebecca L. Bishop, Richard Walterscheid, James Clemmons, Aroh Barjatya, Liam O. Gunter

Small Satellite Conference

The Low-Latitude Ionosphere/Thermosphere Enhancements in Density (LLITED) CubeSat mission is a NASA funded HTIDs project. It is a 3-year grant with two 1.5U CubeSats with an estimated delivery in the spring of 2020 and a 1- year on-orbit mission life. Each CubeSat will host a miniature ionization gauge space instrument (MIGSI), planar ion probe (PIP), and GPS radio occultation sensor (CTECS-A). The mission is to provide both ionosphere and thermosphere measurements related to the Equatorial Ionization Anomaly (EIA) and the Equatorial Temperature and Wind Anomaly (ETWA). The EIA and ETWA are two of the dominant ionosphere/thermosphere interactions on the low-latitude …

Aqt-D: Demonstration Of The Water Resistojet Propulsion System By The Iss-Deployed Cubesat, Jun Asakawa, Kazuya Yaginuma, Yoshihiro Tsuruda, Hiroyuki Koizumi, Yuichi Nakagawa, Kota Kakihara, Kanta Yanagida, Yoshihide Aoyanagi, Takeshi Matsumoto, Shuhei Matsushita, Yusuke Murata, Mikihiro Ikura

Small Satellite Conference

AQT-D (AQua Thruster-Demonstrator) is a 3U CubeSat for a demonstration of a water resistojet propulsion system developed by The University of Tokyo. AQT-D installed the 1U propulsion system using water as a propellant, named AQUARIUS-1U (AQUA ResIstojet propUlsion System 1U). We completed the design and assembly of the AQT-D flight model. AQUARIUS-1U was fired on a pendulum-type thrust balance, and its performance was directly characterized in both a stand-alone test and an integrated test using an entire spacecraft system. AQT-D is currently scheduled to be delivered to JAXA in July 2019 and launched to the International Space Station (ISS) in …

The Lunar Polar Hydrogen Mapper (Lunah-Map) Mission, Craig Hardgrove, Joe Dubois, Lena Heffern, Ernest Cisneros, James Bell, Teri Crain, Richard Star, Thomas Prettyman, Igor Lazbin, Bob Roebuck, Nathaniel Struebel, Ethan Clark, Derek Nelson, Jeremy Bauman, Bobby Williams, Michael Tsay, Joshua Model, Pete Hruby, Alessandra Babuscia, Steve Stem, Devon Sanders, Elliot Hegel, Mitchell Wiens, Sean Parlapiano, Patrick Hailey, Tyler O'Brien, Katherine Mesick, Dan Coupland

Small Satellite Conference

The Lunar Polar Hydrogen Mapper (LunaH-Map) mission will map hydrogen enrichments within permanently shadowed regions at the lunar south pole using a miniature neutron spectrometer. While hydrogen enrichments have been identified regionally from previous orbital missions, the spatial extent of these regions are often below the resolution of the neutron instruments that have flown on lunar missions. LunaH-Map will enter into an elliptical, low altitude perseline orbit which will enable the mission to spatially isolate and constrain the hydrogen enrichments within permanently shadowed regions. LunaH-Map will use a solid iodine ion propulsion system, X-Band radio communications through the NASA Deep …

Aero & Vista: Demonstrating Hf Radio Interferometry With Vector Sensors, Frank D. Lind, Philip J. Erickson, Michael Hecht, Mary Knapp, Geoffrey Crew, Ryan Volz, John Swoboda, Frank Robey, Mark Silver, Alan J. Fenn, Benjamin Malphrus, Kerri Cahoy

Small Satellite Conference

AERO (Auroral Emission Radio Observer) and VISTA (Vector Interferometry Space Technology using AERO) are recently selected NASA HTIDeS CubeSat missions for terrestrial auroral science and radio interferometric technology demonstration. The AERO and VISTA CubeSats both host vector sensing antenna systems providing advanced electromagnetic capabilities. Together, they will provide the first in-space demonstration of interferometric imaging, beamforming, and nulling using electromagnetic vector sensors at low frequencies (100 kHz –15 MHz). A key goal of the joint missions’ technology demonstration is to validate theoretical sensor performance modeling indicating that interferometric arrays composed of vector sensors will be able to maintain sensitivity even …

The Canop Cubesat Mission, Andrew Santangelo, Kevin Crosby

Small Satellite Conference

The CaNOP Cubesat Mission is a student based cubesat mission based out of Carthage College. The purpose of the mission is to test a method for multispectral imaging, image changes in the rain forest on Earth, and visualize changes in urban night lighting due to the growth in low power LED street lights. The 3U Cubesat camera system is designed to replicate early Landsat remote sensing capabilities. For this mission CaNOP is using a commercial four-band multispectral push-broom imager designed for precision agriculture applications. This imaging system reproduces a subset of the visible and near-IR Landsat and MODIS spectral imaging …

Human Resource Development In Africa, Shinsaku Nakamura, Kazuyo Hirose, Tomomi Takeda, Takayoshi Fukuyo

Small Satellite Conference

SMART Africa Manifesto was endorsed by all countries of African Union in 2014. African countries have cooperated to enable innovation, communication and advocacy, capacity building and resource mobilization through ICT. SMART Africa Steering Committee recommended that African space program proposal with Japan was implemented in cooperation with African Union on space developments for achieving Sustainable Development Goals continuously and synergistically in February 2018. The University of Tokyo and Japan Space Systems have cooperated to provide capacity building programs about micro-satellite developments and Earth observation satellite data analysis techniques to African young engineers. 2 optical cameras as a pseudo-multi-spectral were loaded …

Tailored Systems Engineering Processes For Low Cost High Risk Missions, Jared Clements, Tyler Murphy, Lee Jasper, Charlene Jacka

Small Satellite Conference

Given the low cost of most cubesat missions, a full implementation of the traditional space systems engineering process to cubesat missions can be detrimental to programmatic success of the cubesat. At the other extreme, cubesat missions often suffer predictable consequences from the omission of standard systems engineering processes such as risk management, configuration management, and quality assurance. In this paper we discuss a scaled systems engineering approach to cubesat missions implemented on a programmatically constrained mission. A discussion of each of the standard systems engineering processes and options for tailoring the processes for a constraint-based mission and how this varies …

On-Orbit Calibration Of Magnetometer Using Stochastic Gradient Descent, Joshua Abbey, Samuel Boland

Small Satellite Conference

Magnetometers are a key component of small satellite attitude determination and control systems(ADCS). They are typically calibrated on the ground during the spacecraft Assembly, Integration, and Testing (AIT) program.

UNSW Canberra Space have observed magnetometer calibration changes during the AIT program, with the most likely cause being spacecraft component magnetisation. Vibration testing has been noted to result in significant changes to magneto-inductive magnetic sensor calibration biases, and to a lesser extent, scale gains.

Ground-based calibration can be time consuming, manpower intensive and susceptible to human error. For larger spacecraft production runs, it is desirable to reduce or eliminate the time …

Unite Cubesat: From Inception To Early Orbital Operations, Glen Kissel, Ryan Loehrlein, Nathan Kalsch, Wyatt Helms, Zack Snyder, Sujan Kaphle

Small Satellite Conference

On January 31, 2019 the University of Southern Indiana UNITE CubeSat was deployed from the International Space Station and has transmitted data every day since. The missions of UNITE [Undergraduate Nano Ionospheric Temperature Explorer] are to measure plasma properties in the lower ionosphere using a Langmuir Plasma Probe, to measure its internal and skin temperatures to compare with a student-developed thermal model, and to track the orbital decay of the CubeSat, particularly near re-entry. The 3U UNITE CubeSat is passively magnetically and aerodynamically stabilized. This paper summarizes the design, build, integration, test and operations phases of the UNITE project since …

The Radfxsat Mission To Study Radiation Effects On Advanced Nanoelectronics, Brian D. Sierawski, Rebekah A. Austin, James M. Trippe, Kevin M. Warren, Andrew L. Sternberg, Robert A. Reed, Robert A. Weller, Eric Skoog, Gerald W. Buxton Iii, W. Burns Fisher, Robert Davis, Christopher E. Thompson

Small Satellite Conference

The RadFxSat mission was launched on November 18, 2017 with the Joint Polar Satellite System-1 (JPSS-1) under the NASA ELaNa XIV initiative. RadFxSat, now designated at AO-91, is an AMSAT Fox bus carrying a Vanderbilt University radiation effects payload. Embedded in the sub-audible range of voice transmissions are the telemetry conveying the status of the spacecraft and payload. Since launch, hundreds of amateur radio operators have submitted thousands of telemetry packets. These data can be retrieved using AMSAT’s FoxTelem software and are being used by researchers to measure the effects of ionizing radiation on modern commercial electronics.

Mission Dodona: Electronic Power System Design, Analysis And Integration, Sriram Narayanan, Rahul Rughani, Rebecca Rogers, Kyle Clarke, Jeremy Allam

Small Satellite Conference

“Dodona” is USC’s third CubeSat mission, and the electronic power system for this mission conforms to a centralized architecture common to the early-CubeSat class. The electronic power system is designed to power all satellite system components and any additional customer payload. A power budget is presented describing various operating configurations of the CubeSat and how its requirements are met in the design. The power system used a legacy Clyde Space 3U CubeSat Power System consisting of a combination of batteries and an Electronic Power System (EPS) to control charging, discharging, and voltage conversions for the system. The central architecture uses …

Hybrid Attitude Control On-Board Uwe-4 Using Magnetorquers And The Electric Propulsion System Nanofeep, Alexander Kramer, Philip Bangert, Klaus Schilling

Small Satellite Conference

Orbit control on-board a 1U CubeSat was not demonstrated in orbit yet and is the technical goal of the UWE-4 mission. For this purpose, the electric propulsion system NanoFEEP was developed by our partners from TU Dresden. Four thruster heads are integrated into the rails of the CubeSat structure. This paper will give an insight into the first activation of an electric propulsion system on-board a 1U CubeSat on 26th February 2019. On the way to orbit control, attitude control capabilities have to be demonstrated in order to direct the thrust vector as desired. The calibration of the attitude determination …

First Flight Results Of The Move-Ii Cubesat, Sebastian Rueckerl, David Meßmann, Nicolas Appel, Jonis Kiesbye, Florian Schummer, Markus Faehling, Lucas Krempel, Tejas Kale, Alexander Lill, Gonzalo Reina, Patrick Schnierle, Sebastian Wuerl, Martin Langer, Martin Luelf

Small Satellite Conference

MOVE-II (Munich Orbital Verification Experiment) is the second satellite of the Technical University of Munich’s educational CubeSat program. On December 3, 2018, the satellite was launched on the SSO-A SmallSat Express from the Vandenberg Air Force Base. The following paper shows on-orbit results of the first eight months of operations. It includes analyses based on our own data as well as the open-source ground station network SatNOGS. Lessons learned from mission operations and recommendations for future educational missions are provided. The technical goals of the mission are verifying the satellite’s bus and the qualification of a novel type of quadro-junction …

Utah Women In Stem Education: A 2019 Update, Cheryl Hanewicz, Susan Thackeray, Susan R. Madsen

Marketing and Strategy Faculty Publications

According to a recent article in Utah Business Magazine, Utah had the strongest job growth in the nation in 2018, with no signs of slowing down. Forbes ranked Utah second in their 2018 Best States for Business scorecard, moving it up from third the previous year. Given the increase in the number of high-tech firms in Utah, it should come as no surprise that many jobs are based in the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields. In fact, Utah contains three of the top 100 best cities for STEM jobs in the United States, including Salt Lake City (#8), …

2019 Utah State University Orientation Guide, Utah State University

The Utah Statesman

A special supplemental magazine provided by The Utah Statesman to take a closer look at some of the services and departments available at Utah State University.

Optimal Vehicle Use In The Presence Of Episodic Mobile-Source Air Pollution, Arthur J. Caplan, Ramjee Acharya

Applied Economics Faculty Publications

This paper develops a conceptual model of vehicle trips in a region plagued by weather-dependent, mobile-source air pollution, and numerically estimates optimal trips for one of the nation's perennially worst air quality regions in terms of short-term particulate matter. Based upon data-driven parameters and damage estimates, our numerical model generates optimal values for region-wide vehicle trips and associated PM_2.5 concentrations along with their corresponding time paths. Our dataset includes a host of pertinent weather variables that determine PM_2.5 concentrations both independently as well as interacted with vehicle trips. As a result, our empirical model enables us to isolate …