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Nalidarturbopauseshear, Titus Yuan

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The USU Na lidar has been upgraded to be able to measure temperature and winds in the lower thermosphere up to ~ 115 km routinely. The new capability, coupled with the existing nightglow instruments at USU, enables the investigation of the extreme large wind and shears in this region and their correlation to the atmospheric gravity waves activities in the upper mesosphere.

A Simple Method For Determining Shallow Charge Distributions In Dielectrics Via Pulsed Electroacoustic Measurements, Zachary Gibson, J. R. Dennison

Journal Articles

The understanding of charge dynamics in dielectric materials is paramount in mitigating electrostatic discharge events for spacecraft. The most critical spacecraft charging events are found to result from incident electrons in the energy range of 10 keV to 50 keV. The charge embedded in dielectric materials in this energy range are deposited a distance into the material on the order of a few to tens of microns. One way to measure and understand the deposited charge is via pulsed electroacoustic measurements (PEA). However, the typical PEA spatial resolution of ~ 10 μm is not sufficient to resolve or discern charge …

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 …

A Neural-Network-Based Landscape Search Engine: Lse Wisconsin, Matthew Haffner, Matthew Dewitte, Papia F. Rozario, Gustavo A. Ovando-Montejo

Environment and Society Faculty Publications

The task of image retrieval is common in the world of data science and deep learning, but it has received less attention in the field of remote sensing. The authors seek to fill this gap in research through the presentation of a web-based landscape search engine for the US state of Wisconsin. The application allows users to select a location on the map and to find similar locations based on terrain and vegetation characteristics. It utilizes three neural network models—VGG16, ResNet-50, and NasNet—on digital elevation model data, and uses the NDVI mean and standard deviation for comparing vegetation data. The …

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 …

Simple Scheduling Algorithm For Growing Constellations, Lauren Fitzgibbon, Chris Shaffer

Small Satellite Conference

As the number of satellites in orbit grows, satellite constellation operators must consider better ways to balance the usage of ground assets. In general, ground asset availability does not grow linearly with the number of satellites launched, so alternative approaches to divide usage amongst a limited number of ground assets are required. While advanced techniques exist to manage these factors, they are often not practical for small and growing constellation managers.

The authors have developed a computationally simple method for dividing available antenna time between satellites, considering available access windows. This was designed to adapt to any number of heterogenous …

Optimization Of A Constellation Deployment And Renewal With Petri Nets, Anton Roig

Small Satellite Conference

This poster analyzes deployment scenarios of the IoT constellation SIROCO in order to characterize the impacts of the working hypotheses – including the type and number of satellites, the in-orbit stock management, the reliability of the satellites and launchers – on the expected performances and costs of the system.

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 …

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 …

Surrogate-Based Smallsat Architecture Design Leveraging Integrated Parametric Mission Models, Allen Wautlet, Greg Thanavaro, Ben Renkoski

Small Satellite Conference

The modern space mission landscape requires consideration of many trade variables to meet growing cost and performance constraints. In the defense sector, threats continue to proliferate, driving the need for multi-layered constellations that are robust to myriad potential conflicts. In the civil sector, stakeholders seek science data with ever increasing timeliness, coverage, and resolution to monitor the pulse of Earth's changing environment. Across the commercial arena, companies compete to deliver the best space products and services, bringing cutting edge business opportunities into the realm of possibility for the first time. Now more than ever, all three sectors demand optimal mission …

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 …

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 …

Moon Orbiter "Izumi" For Lunar Water Exploration, Kentaro Taniguchi, Miwa Tsurumi, Ryusei Komatsu

Small Satellite Conference

NASA's Artemis program focuses on the water resources on the Moon. As lunar exploration probes with high spatial resolutions can identify potential drilling points on the lunar surface, this study proposes a mission that focuses on neutrons generated by galatic cosmic rays that leak into space and contain information regarding the amount of water within the lunar subsurface. Neutron detectors used in previous lunar exploration mission probes have encountered challenges in achieving both high spatial resolution and statistical reliability. To overcome these challenges, the proposed mission satellite is equipped with the world's first imager proposed for thermal neutrons. The satellite …

Implementation Of A Microthruster Using Pcbmems, José M. Quero, Gonzalo Quero

Small Satellite Conference

This paper describes the implementation of microthrusters using PCBMEMS technology. PCBMEMS is the engineering of MEMS devices based on standard printed circuit board (PCB) technology. The reduced thickness of the copper layers together with the high resolution of the features on a PCB allow the implementation of micrometer-sized devices. A solid fuel microthruster including a tank, detonator and throat has been designed, simulated, manufactured, and tested using this PCBMEMS technology.

Development Of On-Ground Hardware In Loop Simulation Facility For Space Robotics, Roshan Sah, Raunak Srivastava, Kaushik Das

Small Satellite Conference

Over a couple of decades, space junk has increased rapidly, which has caused significant threats to the LEO operation satellites. A mitigating measure should be taken to protect the LEO space environment. An Active Debris Removal (ADR) concept continuously evolves for space junk removal. One of the ADR methods is Space Robotics, whose function is to chase, capture and de-orbit the space junk. This paper presents the development of an on-ground space robotics facility in the TCS Research for on-orbit refueling and debris capture experiments. A Hardware-in-Loop Simulation (HILS) system will be used for integrated system development, testing, and demonstration. …

High-Altitude Balloon-Launched Cubesat Platform For Small Satellite Undergraduate Space Technology Education In Saudi Arabia, Ashraf Farahat, Ayman Abdullah, Abdulmalik Alghanmi, Bassam Aldar, Abduallah Albaqer, Yousef Almodhi

Small Satellite Conference

In this work, we discuss the effort of King Fahd University of Petroleum KFUPM undergraduate students to design a Balloon CubeSat and fly it to an altitude of about 30km. This approach allows enhancing the payload through several launching attempts at a relatively low cost. The KFUPM balloon CubeSat is the first stage in a multi-year program to enable undergraduate students to design and test a CubeSat platform and eventually launch to Earth orbit.

Autonomous Docking System For Assembly And Reconfiguration In Space For Small Satellites, Atheel Redah, Felix Sittner, Saurav Paudel, Sergio Montenegro

Small Satellite Conference

As the number of orbiting satellites has rapidly increased in the last few years, the need of space elements that can perform autonomous rendezvous and docking maneuvers with other orbiting elements for different application such as self-assembly and reconfiguration in space are become more pressing. The TAMARIW project is intended to demonstrate such capability for small satellites. This paper describes the project and the modules being developed to realize its objectives at the time of writing. It will also present the technologies and systems intended to be used for performing safe autonomous undocking/docking maneuvers. Additionally, the testing platforms being built …

Windform® Xt 2.0 Use As 3u Cubesat Primary Structure, Amanda Stark, Andrew Paddock, Thuan Nguyen, Kurt Woodham

Small Satellite Conference

CubeSats provide a platform for small-scale space research and technology demonstration at reduced complexity, cost, and development time. These advantages drove the NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) to develop and launch the GPX2 3U CubeSat to explore the viability of using Commerical Off-The-Shelf (COTS) differential Global Position System (dGPS) in low earth orbit. To reduce manufacturing costs and increase design flexibility, the project chose additive manufactured Windform® XT 2.0 as the primary bus material rather than traditional subtractive manufactured (milled) metal. The bus is a two-part, Selective Laser Sintered, 3D-print structure consisting of a single-piece, five-walled chassis and single-walled cover. …

The First Chilean Satellite Swarm: Approach And Lessons Learned, Cristobal Garrido, Elías Obreque, Matias Vidal-Valladares, Samuel Gutierrez, Marcos Diaz Quezada, Carlos Gonzalez, Camilo Rojas, Tamara Gutierrez

Small Satellite Conference

SUCHAI 2, SUCHAI 3, and Plansat are three 3U CubeSats designed, manufactured, integrated, and tested by the Space and Planetary Exploration Laboratory at the University of Chile (SPEL). They were launched into space on April 1, 2022, aboard a D-Orbit ION platform. The ION deployer was carried into space on the SpaceX Falcon 9 Transporter 4 mission. The nanosatellites included payloads and experiments from several other national and international groups, all featuring different missions and configurations.

We developed the three CubeSats simultaneously. Some subsystems are the same, while others are specific to each satellite. They include scientific and technical payloads. …

A Low-Cost, Miniaturized, Homogeneity-Optimized Helmholtz Cage For Cubesat Attitude Control Ground Testing, Devdigvijay Singh, Michael Galvin

Small Satellite Conference

Reduced launch costs and increased interest from researchers and the public have enabled CubeSats to undergo significant evolution in the past decade, expanding their applications to include a broad range of fields such as communication, navigation, observation, education, and science demonstration. For a wide variety of nanosatellite missions ranging from Earth remote sensing to astronomy-related measurements and space debris tracking, the development of passive or active attitude control systems (PACS/AACS) is of great importance. Of the various attitude control and stabilization methods for small satellites, magnetic techniques such as magnetorquers and hysteresis rods offer modest pointing and detumbling capability while …

Technology Challenges Of Surround: A Constellation Of Small Satellites Around The Sun For Tracking Solar Radio Bursts, Nicholas H. Crisp, Alejandro Macario Rojas, Ciara N. Mcgrath, Shane Maloney, L. Alberto Cañizares, Dale M. Weigt, Sophie Murray, Eoin Carley, Peter Gallagher

Small Satellite Conference

The SURROUND mission proposes the operational monitoring and forecasting of space weather events using a constellation of five small satellites in orbit around the Sun. This unique mission concept would enable the localisation and tracking of solar events with unprecedented accuracy. The small payload combined with high launch requirements makes this an ideal candidate mission for a distributed constellation of small spacecraft and provides an opportunity for technical development in the areas of deep space communication, propulsion, and survivability. The baseline configuration for SURROUND proposes the deployment of spacecraft to Earth-Sun Lagrange points L1, L4, and L5, and two additional …

Developing Intelligent Space Systems: A Survey And Rubric For Future Missions, Mary Dahl, Christine Page, Kerri Cahoy, Evana Gizzi

Small Satellite Conference

Space exploration continues to inspire the development of advanced technologies to explore the universe. From moon landings and the Mars rovers to the recent successful deployment of the James Webb Telescope, space exploration continues to push the limits of what is possible in both science and technology and to pave new ways for the discovery of our galaxy. While we have seen great advancements and barriers broken, we remain limited in our ability to optimize science discovery without onboard intelligent capabilities to enable complex system missions. In this paper, we focus on AI technologies and cross-disciplinary directions for sparking research …

Comparison Of Tracking-By-Detection Algorithms For Real-Time Satellite Component Tracking, M. Nehru J. Attzs, Trupti Mahendrakar, Mackenzie J. Meni, Ryan T. White, Isaac Silver

Small Satellite Conference

With space becoming more and more crowded, there is a growing demand for increasing satellite lifetimes and performing on-orbit servicing (OOS) at a scale that calls for autonomous missions. Many such missions would require chaser satellites to autonomously execute safe and effective flightpath to dock with a non-cooperative target satellite on orbit. Performing this autonomously requires the chaser to be aware of hazards to route around and safe capture points through time, i.e., by first identifying and tracking key components of the target satellite. State-of-the-art object detection algorithms are effective at detecting such objects on a frame-by-frame basis. However, implementing …

Characterization And Modeling Of Rectifying Antennas For Space-To-Space Power Transmission, Leilani Baker, Zack Daniels, Samantha Korfe, Will Hamel, Chad Rathbun, Ricardo Quintana, Dante Orona Yang, Hailey Holder, Joseph Likar, Steve Lindsley, Rachel Delaney, Constance Moyer, Christopher Rodenbeck, Brian Tierney

Small Satellite Conference

Wireless electrical power transmission, also known as power beaming, is an old idea with renewed interest that has the potential to create a new solar power infrastructure. COSMIAC, a research center of The University of New Mexico School of Engineering, in partnership with the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) and Operational Energy – Innovation (OE-I) fund is developing a ground-based experiment aimed at supporting space-based wireless power transmission called Wolf. In parallel, AFRL is developing Arachne to demonstrate space-based power transmission to various receivers. The Wolf project is evaluating design concepts for potential rectenna-powered CubeSats by demonstrating ground-based power beaming …

Control Of Small Spacecraft By Optimal Output Regulation: A Reinforcement Learning Approach, Joao Leonardo Silva Cotta, Omar Qasem, Paula Do Vale Pereira, Hector Gutierrez

Small Satellite Conference

The growing number of noncooperative flying objects has prompted interest in sample-return and space debris removal missions. Current solutions are both costly and largely dependent on specific object identification and capture methods. In this paper, a low-cost modular approach for control of a swarm flight of small satellites in rendezvous and capture missions is proposed by solving the optimal output regulation problem. By integrating the theories of tracking control, adaptive optimal control, and output regulation, the optimal control policy is designed as a feedback-feedforward controller to guarantee the asymptotic tracking of a class of reference input generated by the leader. …

Development And Characterization Of A Vectored Electrospray Thruster, Ivan Savytskyy, Manish Jugroot

Small Satellite Conference

Next-generation nanosatellite missions will require precise linear impulse and torque bits for optimized attitude and trajectory control. To address this requirement, a Vectored Electrospray Thruster (VET) that provides high-resolution multi-axis attitude actuation via thrust vector control was investigated at the Royal Military College of Canada Advanced Propulsion and Plasma Exploration Laboratory (RAPPEL). The VET employs arrays of linear porous wedge emitters and uses pulse-width modulation to produce stepped emission differentials across the nanosatellite propulsion plane. A two-emitter prototype offering single-axis attitude actuation was developed to validate the thruster concept, and a custom power processing unit and complementary diagnostics suite were …

Automating Spacecraft Analysis: The Era Of Ontological Modeling & Simulation, Michael Halvorson, Noah Moyers, Carlos Domani, Johny Corona, Matthew Gillis, Sean Price, Aiden Raley, Andrew Crudup, Andrew Walter, Coleman Deschepper, Grant Gravitt, Jacob Wilkins, Nik Dreicer, Seth Porter, Tyler Babinec, Tyler Johnson, Nicolas Tsolas, L. Dale Thomas

Small Satellite Conference

Verification by analysis is a predicted compliance of a design to imposed requirements. The levels of performance specified by performance requirements can be related to Technical Performance Measures (TPM) in a Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) environment, but engineers performing verification by analysis are not commonly versed in professional Systems Engineering (SE) techniques or modeling languages such as SysML. As the formal application of Systems Engineering (SE) results in a diminution of time, effort, and money for large-scale projects, enabling technical engineers performing verification by analysis to contribute to MBSE improvements in the course of their daily work is financially incentivized. …

The Kihm-9: A Novel Self-Deploying Picosat Antenna Design For Reflectarray Antennas, Nathan Coleman, Mitchel Skinner, Collin Ynchausti, Spencer Magleby, Larry Howell, Akash Biswas

Small Satellite Conference

Reflectarray antennas are popular on satellites for their ability to achieve similar performance to parabolic antennas in a more compact volume. This project shows how integrating novel technologies achieves the benefits of larger antennas while maintaining the advantages of small satellites. The objective of this research is to create a reflectarray antenna for a holographic metasurface that utilizes the volume surrounding a CubeSat when stowed, incorporates a novel pin-less hinge, includes a self-deploying and stabilizing joint, and is manufactured out of space-grade materials. By using hinges embedded with membranes and magnets, issues with lubrication and outgassing may be avoided, and …