Digital Commons Network^™

An Open Architecture For Ground Data Systems, Andrew Basin, Mason Starr, Glenn Lightsey

Small Satellite Conference

The Georgia Tech Space Systems Design Laboratory (SSDL) Mission Operations Center (MOC) has historically supported the real-time operations of small satellites but has never simultaneously supported the operation of multiple vehicles. Furthermore, the Ground Data System (GDS) software deployed in the MOC has been rewritten largely from scratch for each new vehicle operated by the SSDL. The SSDL has multiple upcoming launches, including those involving formation flight missions, making the possibility of simultaneously operating multiple vehicles from the MOC increasingly likely. Additionally, the task of rewriting the GDS software for each vehicle is increasingly costly and inefficient. To account for …

An Optimal Mapping Method For Earth-Observation Constellations Using A Maximum Bipartite Matching Algorithm, Varun Gottumukkala, Ritesh Balayan, Rahul Singhal, Kishan Thakkar

Small Satellite Conference

Poster presented during the 2025 SmallSat Conference.

Analytical Method To Design And Develop 2-Stage Passive Vibration Isolator For Spacecrafts And Its On-Board Payloads, Yuvraaj Pasumarthy

Small Satellite Conference

Spacecrafts experience significant vibrations primarily during launch and sometimes in orbit, posing challenges to structural integrity and instrument performance. The methods to mitigate these vibrations, (or vibrations) in general primarily fall into two categories: disturbance absorption and source or receiver isolation. Among these two, isolation is preferred as fundamentally this is an additional system that either separates the source of the disturbance or the receiver effected in comparison to absorbers that reduce the magnitude of disturbance. Furthermore, its ability to provide greater control across varying frequency ranges relevant to spacecraft systems, provides the option of developing isolation systems with high …

Attitude Control Of A Cubesat For The Lunar Navigation Satellite System (Lnss) Using Thrusters And Reaction Wheels, Hyung-Goo Lim, Hyewon Park, O-Jong Kim

Small Satellite Conference

Poster presented during the 2025 SmallSat Conference.

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

Small Satellite Conference

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

Code Reuse In Cubesat Projects: Analyzing The Adoption Of Open-Source Software From The Birds Program, Husseinat Etti-Balogun, Victor Schulz, Mengu Cho

Small Satellite Conference

Code reuse is a fundamental principle in software engineering, streamlining development processes and reducing costs. In the context of CubeSat development, open-source software frameworks, such as the Open-Source BIRDS CubeSat (OSBC) software, have the potential to enhance collaboration and accelerate mission deployment. However, the ex- tent to which CubeSat teams adopt and adapt these existing software solutions remains underexplored.

This study examines six CubeSat missions derived from the BIRDS satellite bus, assessing their software development strategies and the degree of code reuse from OSBC. By analyzing project documentation, source code repositories, and developer interviews, we investigate key factors influencing software …

Conceptual Design Of A Low Orbit Dust Detector Powder, Matheus De Carvalho Abelha, Felipe Oliveira Tavares, Marco Antonio Ridenti, Luís Eduardo Vergueiro Loures Da Costa

Small Satellite Conference

The Pulse Observation OWing to Dust impact ExpeRiment (POWDER) instrument is a conceptual lunar orbital dust detector designed to measure and analyze dust impacts at a lunar polar orbit. POWDER operates by detecting electric charges generated during dust collisions on a designated collector surface. This study is focused on analyzing the design feasibility for a collecting surface plate, in terms of generated voltage signal from dust impact in comparison to the base ambient noise level. The low amplitude of the voltage signal presents significant challenges, as measuring such a faint signal requires …

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

Small Satellite Conference

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

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

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

Small Satellite Conference

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

Contentcube: 1u Cubesat Mission Testing External Display Screens In Orbit, G. Plourde, J. Effenberger, M. Esser, N. Hernandez

Small Satellite Conference

Poster presented during the 2025 SmallSat Conference.

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

Small Satellite Conference

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

Cadence-Swans: Continuous Autonomous Detection Enabling Networked Collaboration Explorers Of A Space Weather Anomaly Notification System, Matthew Chang, Kelly Williams, Pragun Bethapudi, Chloe Lau, Giselle Revolorio, Ella Shepherd

Small Satellite Conference

Through the University Nanosatellite Program (UNP), the Bronco Space Lab at Cal Poly Pomona presents Continuous Autonomous Detection Enabling Networked Collaboration Explorers of a Space Weather Anomaly Notification System (CADENCE–SWANS): a pathfinder mission demonstrating autonomous space weather monitoring using a low-latency, onboard radiation notification system. The spacecraft conducts coarse energy spectroscopy in real time to detect elevated radiation levels and autonomously generate notifications, including time-stamped records of detection-to-decision latency.

CADENCE–SWANS uses a novel compact, low-SWaP-C coarse particle energy spectrograph, constructed with varied thicknesses of shielding, to estimate particle energies without requiring precise pointing or expensive particle detectors. This approach enables …

Cubesat Dr3am: A 4u Demonstrative Robust 3d Additive Manufacturing System, Spencer Stowell, Casey Gooch, Taylor Anderton

Small Satellite Conference

Poster presented during the 2025 SmallSat Conference.

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

Small Satellite Conference

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

Design, Development, And Testing Of An Electrical Power System With A Multiple-Battery Charge Regulator Approach For The 6u Cubesat Vertecs, Chinathip Narongphun, I. Kato, S. Nakagawa, L. Zamba, B.H.V. Kumar, N.C. Örger, T. Nakagawa, K. Sano

Small Satellite Conference

Poster presented during the 2025 SmallSat Conference.

Detumbling Analysis And Attitude Stabilization Of Spicesat: A Closed-Loop Control Verification Framework, Spencer Talish, Francesca Fusco

Small Satellite Conference

This study investigates the detumbling capabilities of SPICEsat following an initial angular disturbance imparted by the deployer. SPICEsat, which stands for Sloshing Platform for In Orbit Controller Experimentation, is a 6U CubeSat developed by Rutgers University to investigate the effects of fuel sloshing on spacecraft stability and control. Top level, this research’s objective is to confirm SPICEsat's ability to reduce angular momentum, thereby achieving a stabilized post-deployment attitude. This is referred to as detumbling, or the process of reducing a satellite’s rotational rates following deployment. The system-level focus centers on assessing the control authority of the Blue Canyon Technologies (BCT) …

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

Small Satellite Conference

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

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

Developing A Model-Based Systems Engineering Methodology For Academic Cubesat Missions, Piper L. Kline

Small Satellite Conference

Cube Satellites (CubeSats) have become increasingly popular, particularly in academic settings, due to their affordability, rapid development timelines, and utility as platforms for student training and experimental payloads. Despite these advantages, CubeSat development presents several challenges, including limited resources such as personnel, funding, and time, as well as difficulties in maintaining comprehensive documentation and managing requirements. Student-led projects face additional obstacles, such as inexperienced team members and high turnover rates, which can result in inadequate passing of knowledge. Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) has emerged as a promising approach to address these challenges and improve the efficiency of CubeSat design and …

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

Small Satellite Conference

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

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

Development Of A Scalable Electrical And Mechanical Backplane For The Guaranisat-2 Cubesat Mission, Edgar Elias Ramirez Sosa

Small Satellite Conference

This paper presents the design, development, and validation of a custom backplane interface board for GuaraniSat-2, Paraguay's second nanosatellite. GuaraniSat-2 is a 3U CubeSat developed through a collaborative effort led by the Paraguayan Space Agency (AEP) and SpaceLab, with the active participation of stakeholders such as the Polytechnic and Engineering Faculties of the National University of Asunción (UNA), Catholic University of Asunción (UCA), the LIESE lab at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), and Astradyne, an Italian startup spun off from the Polytechnic University of Bari (Politecnico di Bari). The backplane board functions as …

Development Of An Open-Source Spacecraft Bus For The Pulse-A Cubesat, Graydon Schulze-Kalt, Robert Pitu, Spencer Shelton, Catherine Todd, Zane Ebel, Ian Goldberg, Leon Gold, Henry Czarnecki, Mason Mccormack, Larry Li, Zumi Riekse, Brian Yu, Akash Piya, Vidya Suri, Dylan Hu, Colleen Kim, John Baird, Seth Knights, Logan Hanssler, Tian Zhong, Michael F. Lembeck

Small Satellite Conference

The undergraduate-led Polarization-modUlated Laser Satellite Experiment (PULSE-A) at the University of Chicago seeks to demonstrate the feasibility of circular polarization shift keyed satellite-to-ground laser communication. Free-space optical communications offer significantly improved data rates and lower power requirements than radio frequency communications for a similar form factor, which makes optical communications of particular interest for future satellite missions as on-orbit data collection rates increase. PULSE-A’s low-cost open-source bus serves as the backbone of the mission and has been designed in tandem with the Payload, with design driven by strict requirements for pointing accuracy, component alignment, power demand, and thermal stability. This …

Development Of Itasat-2 Cubesat's Primary Structure With Ait-Oriented Design Now, Denis Guilgim Vieira, Lídia Shibuya Sato, Renan Guilherme Soares Meneses, Felipe Oliveira Tavares, Uziel Parada Nunes, Pedro Henrique Dos Santos Alves, Douglas Luan Cardoso Arena, Isabela Dos Santos Pereira, Luis Eduardo V. Loures Da Costa

Small Satellite Conference

The ITASAT2 mission is a key advancement in CubeSat technology, building upon the progressive development of small satellite missions at the Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica (ITA). As a continuation of the ITASAT and SPORT missions, ITASAT2 consists of three 16U CubeSats in a formation flight, designed to investigate critical space weather phenomena and perform technological demonstration of geolocation and formation flight. In addition to its scientific contributions and technological demonstration, the mission incorporates technological advancements to improve CubeSat design and integration processes. The ITASAT2 project is part of the progressive evolution of CubeSat missions at ITA, simultaneously addressing space weather …

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

Small Satellite Conference

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

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

Small Satellite Conference

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

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

Small Satellite Conference

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

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

Small Satellite Conference

Poster presented during the 2025 SmallSat Conference.

Navigation Signal Generator For Leo-Pnt On Cubesat Platforms, Ina Jeong, Pilkyo Jeong, O-Jong Kim

Small Satellite Conference

Poster presented during the 2025 SmallSat Conference.

Neoseeker To Investigate Earth’S Neighbors, Ryan Holton, Harrison Auerbach, Anthony Stan, Kevin L. Simmons

Small Satellite Conference

Poster presented during the 2025 SmallSat Conference.

Origamisat-2: 3u Cubesat Demonstrator For Two-Layer Pop-Up Origami Deployable Membrane Reflectarray Antenna, Atsuki Ochi, Hiraku Sakamoto, Takashi Tomura, Ryosuke Sakurai, Gen Nakayama, Delburg Mitchao, Atsushi Shirane, Kenichi Okada

Small Satellite Conference

Poster presented during the 2025 SmallSat Conference.

Preliminary Results For Collision Probability Predicted Using Gnss Ephemeris From Cubesats, Weichih Lin, Binson Shih-Pin Lee, Loren Chang

Small Satellite Conference

According to an ESA research report, there are now more than one million pieces of space debris larger than one centimeter in low Earth orbit (LEO) [1]. Conjunction assessment (CA) has been drawing attention in various fields. This study proposes leveraging space borne Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) data, including raw pseudorange measurements, to obtain the satellite state vector and covariance for SmallSats or CubeSats. The proposed approach offers the advantage of enabling autonomous CA risk evaluations, while mitigating measurement uncertainties typically associated with ground-based radar systems. Real-time satellite state enables more accurate predictions of future collision probabilities. The COSMIC-2 …