Digital Commons Network^™

Successful Demonstrations Of The Elroi Satellite License Plate, David M. Palmer, Rebecca M. Holmes Sandoval

Small Satellite Conference

ELROI (Extremely Low Resource Optical Identifier) is a system that attaches a small, cheap, low power, autonomous blinking light to a satellite or other space object to allow it to be unambiguously identified by ground observations using a small telescope. This can provide a resolution to the space object identification problem for future launches at minimal technical and financial costs to the satellite operator. In 2024, two satellites carrying ELROI Space Object Tracking Units were successfully launched on separate rocket launches. As reported here, in both cases ELROI provided the first definitive identification of each satellite, sooner than achieved by …

Figaro (5g Phased Array Antenna For Lunar Relay Operations) High-Altitude Balloon Flight Test, Seth Waldstein, James Downey, Bryan Schoenholz, Sarah Dever, Mick Koch, Taylor Pember, Lauryn Leslie, Casey Baron, James Nessel, Satish Sharma, Sanghamitro Das

Small Satellite Conference

NASA’s Space Communications and Navigation (SCaN) Program has outlined lunar internet (LunaNet) requirements for beyond-line-of-sight (BLOS) communications between lunar surface assets. These requirements include providing a Ka-band, high-resolution video link to relay between a dynamically moving Lunar Terrain Vehicle (LTV) and stationary lunar habitat or Human Landing System (HLS). The NASA 5G Array for Lunar Relay Operation (FIGARO) project’s aim is to demonstrate this architecture using a High-Altitude Balloon (HAB) hosting an active phased array (APA) antenna bent-pipe relay system to communicate between two ground terminals using 5G FR2 band beamforming integrated circuits. Fundamental objectives for this demonstration are successfully …

Satellite Passive Ranging Metasurface Optics For Space Rendezvous And Proximity Operations, Jeremy Harris, Zachary Coppens, Cameron Vo, Addison Long

Small Satellite Conference

Rendezvous and Proximity Operations (RPO) are pivotal in a range of space missions, including satellite servicing, debris removal, and formation flying. Traditional RPO sensor technologies, such as LiDAR, radar, and visual cameras, face limitations in terms of power and size requirements. This work introduces a novel passive ranging sensor based on metasurface optics (meta-optics), designed to reduce power and size requirements while enhancing RPO activities by utilizing a single aperture imaging and ranging sensor. The meta-optic device features subwavelength-engineered structures that encode range information using a rotational, double helix point spread function. This new sensor offers potential for reduced power …

Vision-Based Dynamic Tasking For Earth-Observing Satellite Constellations, Shreeyam Kacker, Kerri Cahoy, Kiruthika Devaraj, Işıl Demir, Steve Chien

Small Satellite Conference

Unpredictable phenomena such as cloud coverage pose a challenge for conventional Earth observation. Long lead times can cause conditions to change between forecasting, scheduling, and image capture, leading to suboptimal observations. To combat this, dynamic tasking has been proposed as a mission concept, where perception and autonomy are moved onboard the spacecraft in order to quickly respond to changes in the spacecraft’s imaging schedule, leveraging the compute power available in modern Earth-observing spacecraft. In this work, we explore the use of a wide field-of-view body-fixed lookahead sensor, separate from the main imaging payload, to evaluate the real-time utility of upcoming …

Compact, Value-Driven Solar Array Drive Solution For Small Sats, Brennan Carrizales, Cristian Ramos

Small Satellite Conference

Flash Talk presented during the 2025 SmallSat Conference.

Power Optimization Strategy For High-Power Payloads In Next-Generation Satellites, Atif Mahmood, Ayman Muhammad Abdullah

Small Satellite Conference

Flash Talk presented during the 2025 SmallSat Conference.

Scope-1: On-Orbit Surface Feature-Based Navigation And Timing Mission Overview, Paula Delfin, Lance Lui, Margaret Lambert, Dominic Nguyen, Meenakshi Kalinathabotla, Dylan Mcintyre, Maximilian Roccioli, Riley Vazquez, Yan Zhe Wong, Yulia Meza, Brandon Jones, Renato Zanetti

Small Satellite Conference

The SpaceCraft for Optical-based Position Estimation-1 (SCOPE-1) is a 3U CubeSat developed by the Texas Spacecraft Laboratory (TSL) at The University of Texas at Austin to demonstrate near real-time Position, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) estimation primarily using optical detections of Earth’s islands and archipelagos. The mission adapts algorithms originally developed for lunar crater-based PNT and applies them to terrestrial features for validation in low Earth orbit (LEO). SCOPE-1 features an onboard system combining Mask R-CNN-based surface-feature detection, catalog-based feature identification, and an extended Kalman filter (EKF) to estimate position and timing in near real-time. The SCOPE-1 spacecraft will be built …

Orpheus: A Uk-Led Space Mission To Characterize The Space Domain And Advance Future Concepts For Defense, Kit Grange, Alexander Agathanggelou, Gemma Attrill, Alex Gannon, Christine Mccullough, Graham Routledge, Andy Wells, Andrew Nicholas, Bruce Fritz, Daniel A. Lavigne, Robert Boucher

Small Satellite Conference

The ORPHEUS mission is a collaborative research mission between the UK Defence Science Technology Laboratory (Dstl), the US Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), and the Canadian Defence Research and Development Canada (DRDC) to characterise the space domain and advance future concepts for defence.

The ORPHEUS mission comprises two CubeSats flying in a lead-trail configuration in a near-polar low earth orbit and aims to launch in 2027. This is a follow-on mission to the Coordinated Ionospheric Reconstruction Cubesat Experiment (CIRCE) and Prometheus-2 CubeSat missions that were lost due to a launch failure at the start of 2023, combining and updating the payload …

Canadian Space Agency Satellite Operations For The Quantum Encryption And Science Satellite (Qeyssat) Mission, Tyler Hrynyk, Patrick Irvin, Christian Carrié, Maude Robichaud, Philippe Méhu, Éric Gloutnay, Étienne Boulais, Alexander Koujelev, Lydia Philpott, Alexey Tikhomirov, Stéphane Routhier, Hicham Safoine

Small Satellite Conference

The Canadian Space Agency’s (CSA) Quantum EncrYption and Science Satellite (QEYSSat) mission launching in late 2026 will be the first demonstration of ground-to-space Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) in Canada. For this system, the receiving platform is a microsatellite in low earth orbit and the photon source is hosted in a ground based Optical Quantum Ground Station (OQGS). Together, they will enable the creation and exchange of cryptographic keys, establishing secure quantum communications at a minimum distance of 500 km. In the first year of operations, experiments will be performed to demonstrate QKD as an uplink via Weak Coherent Pulse (WCP) …

Escape, Plasma And Acceleration Dynamics Explorers (Escapade) – Enabling A Low-Cost Mars Mission, Jeffrey S. Parker, Andrew Kohler, Mitchell Rosen, Lauren De Moudt, Robert Lillis, David Curtis, Ellen Taylor, Sasha Courtade, Daniel Cosgrove, Christophe Mandy, Antoine Bichara

Small Satellite Conference

The Escape, Plasma and Acceleration Dynamics Explorers (ESCAPADE) mission will provide a comprehensive picture of how solar wind energy flows through Mars’ unique hybrid magnetosphere to drive ion and sputtering escape. The mission has undergone several transformations to accommodate evolving launch constraints, highlighting its resilience and offering valuable insights for designing low-cost, adaptable Mars missions. This paper describes why and how ESCAPADE has pivoted, how the mission design accommodated the change, and what lessons have been learned. The objective is to illuminate how to design launch resiliency into a low-cost Mars mission.

Acmes: The Next-Generation Of Advanced Lwir Observations Of The Earth, Lucas Anderson, Michael Kirk, Chad Fish, Bruno Mattos, Charles Swenson, Miguel Nunes, Robert Wright

Small Satellite Conference

The Active Cooling for Multispectral Earth Sensors (ACMES) program is an advanced Long-Wave IR (LWIR) remote observation Earth Science Small Satellite mission scheduled to launch in 2026 to a high-inclination 550 km Sun synchronous (SSO) orbit. ACMES will host several novel payloads and technologies, including the Hyperspectral Thermal Imager 2.0 (HyTI 2.0), the Filter Incidence Narrowband Infrared Spectrometer (FINIS), the Planar Langmuir Impedance Diagnostic (PLAID) probe, and the Active Thermal Architecture (ATA) system. ACMES will serve a one-year primary mission focused on technology demonstration, followed by a three-year science-based mission to provide valuable LWIR observations of the Earth’s surface. The …

Lightsheet Anomaly Resolution And Debris Observation (Larado), Andrew Nicholas, Kenneth Marr, Josh Wolf, Charles Brown, Vanessa Kooi, Ted Finne, Scott Budzien, Cosimos Cendo, Ivan Galysh

Small Satellite Conference

Space objects in the size range of 0.1 mm to 3 cm are not currently trackable but have enough kinetic energy for lethal consequences to spacecraft. Small orbital debris poses a risk to most space missions; the detection of this debris requires a combination of a large sensor area and large time coverage. For example, a sensor with a time area product of 3 m²years can make a significant contribution to our understanding of the near-Earth small debris population. Deploying large sensors like physical witness plates is resource intensive, due to their size and weight. The light sheet …

Hitching A Ride On History: Nasa’S Space Launch System Artemis Ii Cubesats, Russell Lane, David Beaman, Courtney Ryals, David Hitt

Small Satellite Conference

In early 2026, NASA will launch the Artemis II mission, the second flight of its Orion spacecraft and Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. Artemis II will be the first crewed flight of the systems and will see four astronauts venture around the Moon as a key step toward establishing a long-term human presence in deep space. The 10-day flight will demonstrate NASA's foundational human deep space exploration capabilities. Launching along with Orion on SLS will be four 12U CubeSats developed through partnerships with space agencies around the world that are signatories of the Artemis Accords. The CubeSats will deploy in …

Deploying And Operating The 25-Satellite Kinéis Constellation, Challenges And Lessons Learned, Franck Darnon, Anissa Bahri, Silvia Salas, Isabelle Hernandez, Damien Servant

Small Satellite Conference

This Kinéis constellation is made of 25 30kg-class satellites, equipped with electric propulsion. The missions are dedicated to IoT (Internet of Things) connectivity and to AIS (Automatic Identification System) monitoring. The satellites were launched by batches of 5, the first took place in June 2024, the last one in March 2025.

The paper discusses how the Ground Control Segment was developed and validated within a complex system and with strong schedule constraints. The validation plan was designed to rapidly de-risk the challenges due to multi- satellite aspects, to focus on a …

Navigating The Ezie Path: Insights From A Cubesat's Trailblazing Journey Through Nasa Mission Development, Marc Hoffman, Rebecca Wind-Kelly, Nelli Mosavi-Hoyer

Small Satellite Conference

The Electrojet Zeeman Imaging Explorer (EZIE) is a low-cost, multi-spacecraft mission that seeks to capture the magnetic signature of the powerful electrojet currents flowing within the Earth's upper atmosphere. Equipped with the innovative Microwave Electrojet Magnetogram instrument, three identical 6U CubeSats fly in a "pearls-on-a-string" configuration in sun-synchronous, low Earth orbit, crossing the auroral oval over 8,000 times during its 18-month lifetime. As a NASA-sponsored, Category 3, Risk Classification D mission, EZIE accommodates a higher-risk tolerance and moderate budget while offering a substantial return in science. In less than 40 months of development, the project managed the convergence of sponsor …

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 …

Efficient Adaptive Thruster Control Strategies For Nanosatellite Attitude Control, Tian Cilliers, Willem Herman Steyn, Hendrik Willem Jordaan

Small Satellite Conference

This work explores the use of online estimation techniques to enhance advanced thruster-only attitude control strategies. Classical fixed-gain feedback control and newer model predictive control (MPC) based approaches all suffer from reduced efficiency or performance when the system parameters deviate from their nominal values. By incorporating optimal estimation techniques, this can be avoided and deviations from nominal values can be leveraged for fault detection, isolation, and recovery (FDIR).

Specifically, this work investigates the use of extended Kalman filters (EKF) to estimate parameters such as thruster torque and disturbances in real time, using satellite attitude measurements and known control inputs. In …

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 …

Performance Quantification Of Diverse Controller Structures In A Non-Cooperative Multi-Agent Orbital Environment, Patrick Williams, Ryan Karow, Jacob Witthuhn, Cannon Kilcrease, Kyle King, Joshua Varon, Imraan Faruque

Small Satellite Conference

Poster presented during the 2025 SmallSat Conference.

Sailing To The Stars: Free-Flying Light Sails In Microgravity, Verena Padres, Dionna Parina, Parishee Bajaj, Shashank Chalamalasetty, Cameron Goddard, Gabriella Elcsics-Gonzáles, Joshua Umansky-Castro, Claire Kim, Ethan Francolla, Mason Peck, Andrew Filo, Alex Burke

Small Satellite Conference

Sailing to the Stars is a mission led by students at Cornell University that will use the International Space Station (ISS) to gather data related to the deployment of free-flying light sails in microgravity. As this light sail architecture is relatively new, additional information on how the sail deploys and the optimal deployment system is desired. This information is relevant for guiding the design of future missions that use this technology. For this experiment, astronauts shall deploy six light sails from two different CubeSat-scale deployer designs within the ISS. Video footage and IMU data will be recorded throughout the experiment, …

Torqmag: Developing A Novel Integration Of Magnetic Attitude Control And Ac Magnetometry For Small Satellite Platforms, Surya S. Kalluri, Alex P. Hoffmann, Mark B. Moldwin, James W. Cutler, Julio Vata, Lauro V. Ojeda, Jake Lancaster, David Benkes-Toth

Small Satellite Conference

➢ Many CubeSats in Earth orbit utilize magnetorquers for attitude control. Simultaneously, AC magnetometry has gained prominence in advancing our understanding of Earth's magnetosphere, including fine-scales in field-aligned currents (FACs).

➢ We propose a novel dual-function subsystem, TorqMag (short for Torquing Magnetometer) integrating a magnetorquer and a search coil sensor to enable both attitude control and high-fidelity AC magnetometry in a single compact package of < 1U.

➢ TorqMag offers significant mass, power, and volume savings for science missions and aims at high-sensitivity detection of magnetic waves (100 Hz–2 kHz) without the need for a deployable boom, while still maintaining sufficient …

Testing Of Lunar Distributed Sensor Network Deployment And Community Science Participation, Barbra Sobhani, Nikhita Sathiyan, Emma Price, Nick Mueller

Small Satellite Conference

The GLEE Mission is a NASA-funded, student-run lunar science mission that aims to develop low-cost, solar-powered PCB sensor packages (called LunaSats) to conduct research on the Moon, while also engaging students around the world in lunar research and mission design. Dozens of LunaSats will be deployed across the surface of the Moon to collect and transmit thermal, magnetic, vibration, and lunar regolith characterization data using a radio mesh network. Student teams will be able to design and program their own science missions using the LunaSats to gather research data and gain experience in lunar mission design.

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 …

Ai In Space: Problems And Solutions, Lucas Lowery, Kevin L. Simmons

Small Satellite Conference

Poster presented during the 2025 SmallSat Conference.

A High-Sensitivity, Low-Power Magneto-Inductive Magnetometer For Space-Based Magnetic Field Measurements And Noise Mitigation, Rowan Antonuccio, Kade Howes, Josh Taylor, Charles Swenson

Small Satellite Conference

This paper presents a discrete-component, magneto-inductive (MI) magnetometer designed for CubeSat-class spacecraft. The sensor operates using an RL relaxation oscillator with FPGA-based pulse counting, achieving picotesla-scale resolution at 1 Hz with 25 mW power consumption. To minimize electromagnetic interference and maintain orthogonality, the sensing coils are housed in a rigid, boom-mounted enclosure constructed from non-magnetic materials. This architecture enhances measurement fidelity and supports in-orbit reconfiguration, offering a low-power research platform suitable for high-resolution magnetic field sensing.