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Articles 181 - 210 of 57323
Full-Text Articles in Entire DC Network
Payload Operation Using On-Board Vision Language Model, Meirav Nevo, Oshri Fatkiev, Guy Zaidman, Doron Shterman
Payload Operation Using On-Board Vision Language Model, Meirav Nevo, Oshri Fatkiev, Guy Zaidman, Doron Shterman
Small Satellite Conference
The rapid maturation of multimodal vision-language models (VLMs) has significantly expanded artificial intelligence applications at the edge, including spaceborne systems. In this work, we present one of the first demonstrations of deploying a compact vision-language model directly on a very-high-resolution Earth-observation satellite payload processor, enabling autonomous on-orbit scene understanding and near real-time decision-making. This represents a paradigm shift in satellite operations, moving from ground-centric processing toward intelligent, self-directed spacecraft.
Conventional Earth-observation missions rely on ground-based image processing and interpretation, introducing latency, downlink bandwidth constraints, and limited operational responsiveness. By embedding a VLM on board the satellite, visual reasoning can be …
A Miniaturized, High Geometric Factor, Electrostatic Analyzer For Fast Plasma Measurements, Dhiren Kataria, Justyna M. Sokol, Jianliang Lin, Camden Ertley, Jonathan Gasser, Guy Grubbs, Kwang-Joo Hwang, Michael Starkey
A Miniaturized, High Geometric Factor, Electrostatic Analyzer For Fast Plasma Measurements, Dhiren Kataria, Justyna M. Sokol, Jianliang Lin, Camden Ertley, Jonathan Gasser, Guy Grubbs, Kwang-Joo Hwang, Michael Starkey
Small Satellite Conference
With advances in machining techniques that can manufacture high aspect ratio structures at high accuracy, cylindrical geometry electrostatic analyzers present a versatile alternative to spherical designs. We report on the development of the 3D Cylindircal And Tiny Spectrometer (3D-CATS), a novel space plasma analyzer that performs instantaneous 3D (multiple energy, azimuth and elevation angles) measurements, providing differential energy, wide field of view particle imaging in a compact, low-SWaP (size, weight and power) package.
The baseline analyzer design consists of a nest of 8 cylindrical analyzers, providing measurements of incoming particle energy distributions over an energy range of 10 eV to …
Uncertainty Quantification And Platform Scattering For The Cimr Reflector Antenna, Tonny Rubaek, Pasquale Giuseppe Nicolaci, Cecilia Cappellin
Uncertainty Quantification And Platform Scattering For The Cimr Reflector Antenna, Tonny Rubaek, Pasquale Giuseppe Nicolaci, Cecilia Cappellin
Small Satellite Conference
The Copernicus Microwave Imaging Radiometer (CIMR) employs a 7.1 m conical scanning mesh reflector antenna rotating at 7.8 rpm that operates from L to Ka band. Demanding radiometric accuracies and sensitivities at few tenths of a Kelvin at high spatial resolution are targeted for the instrument. These require a high accuracy in the characterization and modelling of the antenna pattern over 4π, considering any nearby scattering structure, and/or any potential multipath due to the antenna installation on the S/C, as well as the quantification of the uncertainty on the beam efficiency (BE) arising (from possible in-orbit random variations in the …
Hyti-2: Advancing Hyperspectral Thermal Imaging Into The Era Of Space-Based Edge Processing, Miguel Nunes, Yosef Onodera, Trevor Sorensen, Robert Wright, Paul Lucey, Luke Flynn, Eric Pilger, Scott Ginoza, Mark Wood, Lance Yoseshige, Gabriel Guererro, Lucas Anderson, Charles Swenson, Sachidananda Babu
Hyti-2: Advancing Hyperspectral Thermal Imaging Into The Era Of Space-Based Edge Processing, Miguel Nunes, Yosef Onodera, Trevor Sorensen, Robert Wright, Paul Lucey, Luke Flynn, Eric Pilger, Scott Ginoza, Mark Wood, Lance Yoseshige, Gabriel Guererro, Lucas Anderson, Charles Swenson, Sachidananda Babu
Small Satellite Conference
The Hyperspectral Thermal Imager 2.0 (HyTI-2) is a next-generation long-wave infrared (LWIR) hyperspectral imaging payload designed to operate as a continuously sensing, onboard intelligent node on a small satellite platform. Building on the heritage of the original HyTI mission, HyTI-2 delivers advances in spectral and spatial performance, onboard processing capability, and operational duty cycle, enabling sustained operational capability to support low-latency, data-rich Earth observation architectures for future satellite constellations. As the primary payload of the NASA ESTO InVEST-funded Active Cooling for Multispectral Earth Sensors (ACMES) mission, HyTI-2 is scheduled to launch in 2027 to a 550 km sun-synchronous orbit. HyTI-2 …
Optimization Of Orbit-Maintenance Strategies For Small Satellites In Cislunar Space, Timothy Lauinger, Bradley Cotten, Robert E. Zee
Optimization Of Orbit-Maintenance Strategies For Small Satellites In Cislunar Space, Timothy Lauinger, Bradley Cotten, Robert E. Zee
Small Satellite Conference
Renewed interest in lunar exploration and the development of a sustained cislunar economy has driven demand for low-cost missions supporting mapping, communications networks, navigation services, and scientific studies. Recent growth in rideshare opportunities to the Moon has made small-satellite architectures a viable and cost-effective approach for these missions. Successful execution of these missions, however, depends critically on fuel-efficient and reliable orbital insertion and maintenance strategies, as cislunar missions impose substantially higher delta V requirements than low-Earth orbit missions due to the inherent instability of low lunar orbits. Perturbations arising primarily from lunar mass concentrations drive secular growth in orbital eccentricity …
A Feasibility-Aware Attitude Trajectory Planner For Small Satellites, Patrick Mckeen, Niclas Scheuer, Kerri Cahoy
A Feasibility-Aware Attitude Trajectory Planner For Small Satellites, Patrick Mckeen, Niclas Scheuer, Kerri Cahoy
Small Satellite Conference
Spacecraft attitude control traditionally requires extensive per-mission engineering—hand-tuned gains, mission-specific mode logic, and conservative operating envelopes—that breaks down when on-orbit conditions deviate from ground assumptions. This is especially costly for small satellites, where limited ground support makes autonomous adaptability essential. We present a feasibility-aware attitude trajectory planner that replaces this hand-engineered stack with continuous planning from a digital twin: less a new feedback law than a different division of labor, in which the mode logic, gain tuning, and desaturation a conventional ADCS builds as separate pieces are instead absorbed into a single optimization.
Built on the ALTRO trajectory optimization algorithm, …
Nasa Stari Mission: A Formation-Flying Pathfinder For Space Interferometry, Akshat Dubey, Caden Burkhardt, Raven St. Clair, Austin Thomas, Tobey Chang, Shivani Sunil, Jacob Klingler, Bradley Bialke, Hannah Cherry, Adrien Boissy, Yethinder Ragav Lakshmi Kumar, Daniil Voloshin, Michael Meyer, John D. Monnier, James W. Cutler, Ethan Foss, Samuel Y. W. Low, Antonio Rizza, Simone D'Amico, Althea Noonan, Mark Gorrow, E. Glenn Lightsey, Melissa Flores, Alexa Lapinta, Albert Ostoja-Starzewski, Leonid Pogorelyuk, Gautam Vasisht, Kerri Cahoy
Nasa Stari Mission: A Formation-Flying Pathfinder For Space Interferometry, Akshat Dubey, Caden Burkhardt, Raven St. Clair, Austin Thomas, Tobey Chang, Shivani Sunil, Jacob Klingler, Bradley Bialke, Hannah Cherry, Adrien Boissy, Yethinder Ragav Lakshmi Kumar, Daniil Voloshin, Michael Meyer, John D. Monnier, James W. Cutler, Ethan Foss, Samuel Y. W. Low, Antonio Rizza, Simone D'Amico, Althea Noonan, Mark Gorrow, E. Glenn Lightsey, Melissa Flores, Alexa Lapinta, Albert Ostoja-Starzewski, Leonid Pogorelyuk, Gautam Vasisht, Kerri Cahoy
Small Satellite Conference
The STarlight Acquisition and Reflection toward Interferometry (STARI) mission is a NASA-funded two spacecraft 8U CubeSat technology demonstrator currently in Phase B designed to advance key capabilities required for future space-based optical interferometers. STARI will demonstrate end-to-end beam transfer by reflecting starlight from one spacecraft to another and injecting the received beam into a single-mode optical fiber when it launches in 2029. Formation flying and transferring starlight at very close proximities (25-200 m) presents GNC challenges such as collision safety, precision position control, and fast, precise beam control. The mission ConOps along with a sophisticated GNC system enables passively safe …
Model To Predict Solar Eclipse Impacts On Cygnss Mission Operations, Zach Wiens, Jillian Redfern, Amanda Alexander, Brian Magee, Sam Jones, William Wells, Caden Gobat
Model To Predict Solar Eclipse Impacts On Cygnss Mission Operations, Zach Wiens, Jillian Redfern, Amanda Alexander, Brian Magee, Sam Jones, William Wells, Caden Gobat
Small Satellite Conference
Launched into low-Earth orbit in 2016, the Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS) mission is a constellation of eight small satellites that studies hurricanes and soil moisture. The spacecraft orbit in a fixed orientation with the instrument pointed nadir and the main solar array pointed zenith. During high beta angle seasons – periods during which the magnitude of angle between the Sun vector and the orbit plane is large – the solar arrays generate less power, so mission operators roll the spacecraft 10-16° towards the Sun. This maintains the battery state of charge above the safe-mode threshold. After nine years …
Dante: A Spaceborne Radar Constellation For Debris Detection And Tracking, Leonardo Carrer, Davide Giudici, Bernhard Niedermayer, Christian Federspiel, Wolfgang Ebner, Robert Greinecker
Dante: A Spaceborne Radar Constellation For Debris Detection And Tracking, Leonardo Carrer, Davide Giudici, Bernhard Niedermayer, Christian Federspiel, Wolfgang Ebner, Robert Greinecker
Small Satellite Conference
The growth of space debris in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) is increasing collision risk and challenging the sustainability of space operations, while current ground‑based radars remain limited in sensitivity, coverage and update rates especially for small objects. This paper presents DANTE (Detection ANd Tracking of space dEbris), a spaceborne radar constellation concept designed to enhance debris detection, tracking and orbit refinement directly from LEO. DANTE employs multiple low‑cost satellites equipped with X‑band phased‑array radars operating in two modes: a Tracking Mode for trajectory refinement of known objects and a Beam‑Park/Electronic Fence Mode for debris discovery. Performance analyses indicate sub‑meter resolution …
Software Defined Swarms, Nathan Benz, Scott Miller, Jeff Huang, Sonny Hwang, Todd Sarshad, Edmund De La Cruz, Thomas Magesarcher
Software Defined Swarms, Nathan Benz, Scott Miller, Jeff Huang, Sonny Hwang, Todd Sarshad, Edmund De La Cruz, Thomas Magesarcher
Small Satellite Conference
The Starling Extended Mission has demonstrated the transformative potential of software-defined architectures in multi-spacecraft swarms. Building on the original Starling mission, which validated autonomous coordination and networking among small satellites, the extended phase focused on adaptability—updating onboard payload software and software-defined radios (SDRs) to enable entirely new experiments without hardware modifications. This capability signals a new approach: spacecraft swarms can evolve post-launch to meet emerging scientific and operational objectives.
Central to this extension was the deployment of new software enabling two-way ranging and “reverse GPS” source identification using raw radio frequency (RF) signals. Traditionally, ranging and navigation rely on pre-integrated …
The Space Cognitive Network: From Fractionated Spacecraft To Collaborative Ai-Enabled Space Infrastructure, Owen Brown, Dennis Gatens, Fred Kennedy, John Moberly, Rusty Thomas, Derek Tournear
The Space Cognitive Network: From Fractionated Spacecraft To Collaborative Ai-Enabled Space Infrastructure, Owen Brown, Dennis Gatens, Fred Kennedy, John Moberly, Rusty Thomas, Derek Tournear
Small Satellite Conference
Over the past two decades, small satellite architectures have undergone a fundamental transformation — from platform-centric spacecraft, to globally distributed data-centric constellations. This paper traces that evolution and argues that a third shift is now underway: cognition-centric space architectures enabled by artificial intelligence (AI) as infrastructure.
We begin by revisiting one of the earliest disruptive space architecture concepts: the fractionated satellite. Developed at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in the mid-2000s, the fractionation concept decomposes a monolithic spacecraft into distributed elements. While the original vision emphasized physical subsystem decomposition, the System F6 program ultimately revealed that the greatest …
Sar Disksat Demonstration Mission For Constellation In Vleo, Hirobumi Saito, Mitsuteru Kaneoka
Sar Disksat Demonstration Mission For Constellation In Vleo, Hirobumi Saito, Mitsuteru Kaneoka
Small Satellite Conference
We proposed a novel concept of quasi-two-dimensional SAR (synthetic aperture radar) satellites, SAR DiskSats, in 2023 at this conference. This year, in 2026, the demonstration missions of SAR DiskSats are authorized by the Japanese government as a Space Strategy Fund’s Mission. This paper describes the concept and the mission scenario of the demonstration mission in 2028 and 2030. The SAR DiskSat features a deployable passive slot array antenna that can be compactly folded within the quasi-two-dimensional satellite body. This configuration allows for flexible solar cell sheets to be installed on the backside of the antenna, as the antennas do not …
Scaling High-Resolution Operations: Implementing Automated Anomaly Response In The Skysat Constellation Via Dove Heritage, Hira Nadeem, Shannon Kyle Cabrera Deleon, Alexander Bauer
Scaling High-Resolution Operations: Implementing Automated Anomaly Response In The Skysat Constellation Via Dove Heritage, Hira Nadeem, Shannon Kyle Cabrera Deleon, Alexander Bauer
Small Satellite Conference
As Planet operates the world's largest commercial Earth observation satellite fleet, the transition from manual mission operations to autonomous systems has become a cornerstone of the ability to image Earth’s landmass each day. Planet operates a constellation consisting of hundreds of Dove satellites, approximately 15 SkySats, and a growing number of Pelican and Tanager satellites. As these on-orbit assets grow in both number and complexity, the move toward heterogeneous fleet management has required a unified approach to automation that spans across diverse satellite architectures concurrently and seamlessly.
Drawing on the robust heritage of its large-scale Dove constellation, Planet has evolved …
Design Mechanism Framework For Autonomous Small Satellite Constellations – A Newspace Outlook, Mohammed Irfan Rashed
Design Mechanism Framework For Autonomous Small Satellite Constellations – A Newspace Outlook, Mohammed Irfan Rashed
Small Satellite Conference
The increasing deployment of small satellite constellations is driving a transition from isolated spacecraft missions toward distributed and coordinated space operations. However, as constellation size and mission complexity grow, traditional ground-centric operational approaches become difficult to scale due to communication limitations, delayed decision-making, and increased operational workload. While autonomy has been widely explored through onboard algorithms and artificial intelligence techniques, there remains limited focus on how autonomy should be integrated into the systems engineering architecture of constellation missions. This paper presents a Design Mechanism Framework (DMF) for autonomous small satellite constellations that embeds autonomy directly into mission architecture, operational logic, …
Satellite Constellations 2026 - Survey, Trends And Economic Viability, Erik Kulu
Satellite Constellations 2026 - Survey, Trends And Economic Viability, Erik Kulu
Small Satellite Conference
This paper presents the commercial satellite constellation landscape as of Jan 1, 2026. It is based on data from the public NewSpace Index (www.newspace.im), which has tracked commercial constellations since 2016 and contained 456 entries by the end of 2025.
Many constellation operators have launched initial satellites or small batches, but only a few have reached regular launch rates. Deployment has generally been slower than announced, with many projects scaling back plans or delaying timelines. SpaceX has a significant lead, having launched more than 11,000 Starlink satellites. The next largest commercial operators, Planet and OneWeb, remain well below 1000 satellites. …
Development And Pre-Flight Verification Of The 6u Cubesat Vertecs For Extragalactic Background Light Observation, Ryo Hashimoto, Kei Sano, Takao Nakagawa, S. Matsuura, A. Takahashi, K. Takimoto, K. Tsumura, J. R. Cordova-Alarcon, V. H. Schulz, N. C. Örger, D. Nakayama, E. E. Areda, R. J. G. Rosales, T. Fuse, K. Hamada, Y. Otani, B. V. H. Kumar, K. A. Hil, A. R. S. Islam, T. Tome, Y. Yasudao, C. Narongphun, S. Nakagawa, H. Tanaka, Y. Hirose, Y. Iwaki, A. Ikeda, A. Ojika, Y. Oohara, A. Tsumoto, K. Kurosaki, E. Fukumoto, C. Arakawa, H. Masuno, A. Oho, M. Ebisu, I. Jikuya, M. Cho, H. Masui, H. Matsuhara, N. Isobe, Y. Miyazaki, S. Ikari, Y. Yatsu, T. Wada, R. Funase, K. Hirako, R. Hirose, Y. Ofuji Aoyanagi, T. Goto, T. Hashimoto, V. V. V. Rao, C. Wu
Development And Pre-Flight Verification Of The 6u Cubesat Vertecs For Extragalactic Background Light Observation, Ryo Hashimoto, Kei Sano, Takao Nakagawa, S. Matsuura, A. Takahashi, K. Takimoto, K. Tsumura, J. R. Cordova-Alarcon, V. H. Schulz, N. C. Örger, D. Nakayama, E. E. Areda, R. J. G. Rosales, T. Fuse, K. Hamada, Y. Otani, B. V. H. Kumar, K. A. Hil, A. R. S. Islam, T. Tome, Y. Yasudao, C. Narongphun, S. Nakagawa, H. Tanaka, Y. Hirose, Y. Iwaki, A. Ikeda, A. Ojika, Y. Oohara, A. Tsumoto, K. Kurosaki, E. Fukumoto, C. Arakawa, H. Masuno, A. Oho, M. Ebisu, I. Jikuya, M. Cho, H. Masui, H. Matsuhara, N. Isobe, Y. Miyazaki, S. Ikari, Y. Yatsu, T. Wada, R. Funase, K. Hirako, R. Hirose, Y. Ofuji Aoyanagi, T. Goto, T. Hashimoto, V. V. V. Rao, C. Wu
Small Satellite Conference
The extragalactic background light (EBL) (Fig. 1) is the diffuse light arriving from outside our Galaxy. Previous studies revealed that the near-infrared EBL is several times brighter than the integrated galaxy light (IGL).
This excess may originate from the first stellar objects in the early universe or from intrahalo light. Their spectra differ in the visible range (Fig. 2), so the visible EBL is the key to identifying the origin.
Ground-based observations are contaminated by foregrounds such as airglow. We therefore developed VERTECS (Visible Extragalactic background RadiaTion Exploration by CubeSat) to observe the EBL from space.
Small Satellite Launches From Japan: Zero Launch Vehicle And Hokkaido Spaceport, Atsuta Keiji, Masaki Fujii
Small Satellite Launches From Japan: Zero Launch Vehicle And Hokkaido Spaceport, Atsuta Keiji, Masaki Fujii
Small Satellite Conference
INTEGRATED LAUNCH SYSTEM
- Easy access to factory in case of last minute iterations
- Simplified logistics
- Launch site is tailored made for ZERO
High-Torque Reaction Wheels For Agile Small Satellites, Thomas Brunsgaard, Matt Carton, Kearney Lackas
High-Torque Reaction Wheels For Agile Small Satellites, Thomas Brunsgaard, Matt Carton, Kearney Lackas
Small Satellite Conference
Blue Canyon Technologies has developed a high-torque reaction wheel (RW) product line to meet the growing attitude control demands of next-generation small spacecraft. As small satellites expand into missions requiring rapid retargeting and precise pointing, spacecraft agility is foundational to mission performance. More targets equal more data collection, translating to greater mission insight and revenue generation.
This paper describes Blue Canyon’s approach to product line architecture that enabled rapid development and deployment of high-torque reaction wheels across multiple size classes. The high-torque variants deliver 0.5 Nm of torque, representing a 2X increase over standard configurations with 60% of the baseline …
Shining A Spotlight On Maritime Dark Traffic, Alex Da Silva Curiel, Darren Jones, Rob Knight, Rupert Taylor, Leo Jofeh, Sir Martin Sweeting, Per Atle Våland, Simon Flack, Patrik Mandelin, Håkon Heier
Shining A Spotlight On Maritime Dark Traffic, Alex Da Silva Curiel, Darren Jones, Rob Knight, Rupert Taylor, Leo Jofeh, Sir Martin Sweeting, Per Atle Våland, Simon Flack, Patrik Mandelin, Håkon Heier
Small Satellite Conference
The ability to support Maritime Domain Awareness from space using Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) has been successfully demonstrated in the past, however practical challenges in achieving the necessary area coverage, temporal coverage and spatial resolution for a practical system has eluded wider adoption. Yet demand for Maritime Surveillance has increased in recent years, to protect important maritime energy and communications infrastructure, fisheries, and maritime reserves, and especially for maintaining national security and territorial integrity. A novel approach to the SAR payload design solves these challenges, and smallsat technologies have also matured to the point where a High-Resolution Wide-Swath (HRWS) system …
Development Of Piezo Fast Steering Mirrors For Fso Inter-Satellite Communication, Frank Claeyssen, Arnaud Gilson, Thomas Maillard, David Ferris, Xavier De Lepine, Oliver Sosnicki, Jocelyn Rebufa, Clément Cote, Francis Bortolaso, Pascal Mexe
Development Of Piezo Fast Steering Mirrors For Fso Inter-Satellite Communication, Frank Claeyssen, Arnaud Gilson, Thomas Maillard, David Ferris, Xavier De Lepine, Oliver Sosnicki, Jocelyn Rebufa, Clément Cote, Francis Bortolaso, Pascal Mexe
Small Satellite Conference
To allow faster communication between satellites, Radio Frequency (RF) links are being replaced by laser optical links, often called Free-Space Optical Communication (FSO). Each satellite embeds several optical communication terminals (OCT), each one needing two Fast Steering Mirrors (FSM) for laser beam fine and fast steering. Thus, for some giant constellations, the total number of FSM can reach up to 100 000 FSM. This New Space market induces not only technical challenges, such as good SWaP, but also industrial challenges, in particular reproducibility, cost-effectiveness and low cost of ownership vs Orbit segment. To address these various FSM needs, CEDRAT TECHNOLOGIES …
Cubesat Led Transmitter For Optical Communication Downlink, David Hinkley, Sam Pedrotty
Cubesat Led Transmitter For Optical Communication Downlink, David Hinkley, Sam Pedrotty
Small Satellite Conference
The CubeSat radio frequency (RF) spectrum licensing step has always been long and therefore stressful to developers. With more satellites entering orbit, spectral congestion in the available RF frequency bands has become a problem. An optical-only solution eliminates this problem and provides a path for a lower power and higher throughput data link. The risk of a weather outage drives a solution that requires enough geographically diverse optical ground locations that a clear line-of-sight is always available. The Aerospace Corporation, with funding from NASA, has developed a CubeSat light emitting diode (LED) transmitter and an inexpensive commercial portable optical telescope …
Asynchronous One-Way Range (Aowr) – Alone Positioning And The Applications, Junichiro Kawagichi, Shingo Nishimoto
Asynchronous One-Way Range (Aowr) – Alone Positioning And The Applications, Junichiro Kawagichi, Shingo Nishimoto
Small Satellite Conference
The paper first reports the recent operational results of the HOKUSHIN satellite. It explains how our extended code correlation method has performed and provides link threshold information, specifically the demonstrated C/N0 figures. The paper next focuses on cis-lunar space applications, beginning with direct AOWR-alone positioning directly from Earth using three or more small-aperture ground stations. The application employs a ‘Self-Positioning’ strategy. This system operates in cis-lunar space with 3-meter-class ground stations and CubeSats larger than 6U in size equipped with 200x300 mm patch-array antennas on. It enables universities and startups to conduct genuine lunar exploration. The team won the Strategic …
Magdrive Power System For Next Generation High Power Smallsat Needs, Donya Divsalar, Mark Stokes, Thomas Clayson, David Salmon, Patrick Mabin, Aksat Shah
Magdrive Power System For Next Generation High Power Smallsat Needs, Donya Divsalar, Mark Stokes, Thomas Clayson, David Salmon, Patrick Mabin, Aksat Shah
Small Satellite Conference
The continued expansion of space activities across commercial, governmental, and defense sectors has increased the demand for reliable, flexible, and high-performance electrical power systems. In contrast to terrestrial environments where a broad range of power generation and storage solutions exist—space systems remain constrained to limited options, primarily solar arrays and batteries. These constraints introduce significant design trade-offs in mass, volume, and system complexity, often forcing spacecraft architectures to be dictated by available power rather than mission-driven performance requirements.
High-power missions are particularly affected by these limitations. Delivering elevated power levels typically requires either large battery packs or extensive solar array …
Radiation-Resilient Ai For Small Satellites: A Universal Multi-Bit Edac Architecture For Protecting On-Board Neural Network Models In Memory And Storage, Yin Sun, Nauman Wazir, Joseph Chang, Kwen-Siong Chong, Wei Shu, Hocklai They
Radiation-Resilient Ai For Small Satellites: A Universal Multi-Bit Edac Architecture For Protecting On-Board Neural Network Models In Memory And Storage, Yin Sun, Nauman Wazir, Joseph Chang, Kwen-Siong Chong, Wei Shu, Hocklai They
Small Satellite Conference
The deployment of onboard artificial intelligence (AI) on small satellites enables real-time Earth-observation triage, object detection, and event-driven tasking with reduced dependence on downlink. These capabilities rely on the integrity of neural network parameters (weights and biases) stored across both volatile memory and non-volatile storage (e.g., DRAM/SRAM and SSD/SD/UFS/eMMC). In low-Earth orbit (LEO), radiation-induced upsets can flip bits in commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) memory and storage, corrupting model parameters and degrading inference accuracy. Such degradation can manifest as persistent misclassification or missed detections. Existing mitigation options are often difficult to scale within small-satellite constraints: Triple Modular Redundancy (TMR) incurs substantial mass and …
Nasa's Small Spacecraft & Distributed Systems: Development And Demonstration Of Technologies Enabling Swarms And New Spacecraft Platforms With Ai And Edge Computing, Jan Stupl, Rodolphe De Rosee, Samson Phan, Michael Gaunce, Bruce Yost, Craig Burkhard, Edward Tagalicud, Roger Hunter, Christopher Baker, Justin Treptow-Miller, Sasha Weston, Luke Idziak, Julianna Fishman, Dorothy Santos
Nasa's Small Spacecraft & Distributed Systems: Development And Demonstration Of Technologies Enabling Swarms And New Spacecraft Platforms With Ai And Edge Computing, Jan Stupl, Rodolphe De Rosee, Samson Phan, Michael Gaunce, Bruce Yost, Craig Burkhard, Edward Tagalicud, Roger Hunter, Christopher Baker, Justin Treptow-Miller, Sasha Weston, Luke Idziak, Julianna Fishman, Dorothy Santos
Small Satellite Conference
NASA’s Small Spacecraft & Distributed Systems (SSDS) within the Research and Technology Mission Directorate (RTMD) expands U.S. capability to execute unique missions through targeted investment, rapid development, and flight demonstration of small spacecraft technologies applicable to exploration, science and the commercial space sector. SSDS strategically invests in technology development and on-orbit demonstrations executed across NASA, other government agencies, industry, and academia. The program’s University SmallSat Technology Partnerships initiative awards academic researchers with the opportunity to collaborate with NASA to mature innovative technology. Capabilities aligned with RTMD’s technology shortfalls and interests - power, processing, propulsion, sensors, communications, autonomous navigation, architectures, and …
Intelligence Where Data Is Born: Vision Transformer-Based On-Orbit Change Detection For Earth Sensing, Matthew Morabito, Faries Tadros, Catherine Ordun, Michael S. Sellers, Daniel Wald
Intelligence Where Data Is Born: Vision Transformer-Based On-Orbit Change Detection For Earth Sensing, Matthew Morabito, Faries Tadros, Catherine Ordun, Michael S. Sellers, Daniel Wald
Small Satellite Conference
This paper introduces a model framework for autonomous hyperspectral segmentation that couples a foundation model with a supervised segmentation head to enable compact, high performance on-orbit scene understanding. This approach is designed to deliver end-to-end onboard processing, inference, confidence scoring, and prioritization so the spacecraft performs interpretation at or near image collection time and minimizes downlink usage by transmitting only high-value or high-interest outputs rather than full image streams. A key design element is adaptive intelligence over mission lifetime: low-size, over-the-air partial models updates as small as kb-scale enable post-launch retuning and mission-specific refinement without GB-scale data transfer. By reusing …
Flight Test Of The Autonomous Navigation, Guidance, And Control (Autongc) Software On The Starling Swarm, Robert Pritchett, Nathan Stacey, Sun Hur-Diaz, Michael Romeo, Nickalas Cason, Katherine Fowee Gasaway, Nathan Esantsi, Behnam Azimi, Sean Semper, Hossein Mohammadkhan, Grant Hecht, Joseph Patton, Liam Greenlee, Justin Clavette, Alan Cudmore, Ian Hammer, Ted Hendriks, Terry Stevenson, Nahum Alem
Flight Test Of The Autonomous Navigation, Guidance, And Control (Autongc) Software On The Starling Swarm, Robert Pritchett, Nathan Stacey, Sun Hur-Diaz, Michael Romeo, Nickalas Cason, Katherine Fowee Gasaway, Nathan Esantsi, Behnam Azimi, Sean Semper, Hossein Mohammadkhan, Grant Hecht, Joseph Patton, Liam Greenlee, Justin Clavette, Alan Cudmore, Ian Hammer, Ted Hendriks, Terry Stevenson, Nahum Alem
Small Satellite Conference
Performing real-time autonomous guidance, navigation, and control (GN&C) functions onboard spacecraft is critical for enabling greater spacecraft autonomy. The autoNGC (autonomous Navigation, Guidance, and Control) software suite is a collection of applications, built on the NASA core Flight System (cFS), that provides these capabilities. This paper presents results from the first flight demonstration of autoNGC, conducted on the NASA Starling mission in 2025. The Starling spacecraft's use of cFS enabled autoNGC to be uplinked and run onboard despite the spacecraft already being in orbit. The flight test had three goals: to demonstrate onboard GPS navigation, onboard state and uncertainty prediction …
Ai For Autonomous Operation Of Small Satellite Missions, Lucy Donnell, Reuben Lynch, Charlotte Crawshaw, Karl Buckley, Robert Field, Steven Kay
Ai For Autonomous Operation Of Small Satellite Missions, Lucy Donnell, Reuben Lynch, Charlotte Crawshaw, Karl Buckley, Robert Field, Steven Kay
Small Satellite Conference
UK space industry partners Craft Prospect Ltd (CPL) and GMV deliver an advanced avionics demonstrator which incorporates cutting-edge machine learning (ML) techniques to enhance on-board autonomy for small satellite space missions. The work is funded by the European Space Agency (ESA), and the delivery partners combine expertise in embedded Artificial Intelligence (AI) and space systems engineering to target use cases for on-board autonomy which offer the best gains for a diverse range of mission types including institutional and commercial Earth observation (EO), navigation, scientific, and lunar exploration missions.
Common technical target applications have emerged as underpinning technologies which enable the …
Back From The Dead: Using Stellar Psf Calibration To Recover Operational Value From A Defocused Skysat Telescope, Phillip Linden, Hira Nadeem, Ross Losher, Venkataraman Krishnaswami
Back From The Dead: Using Stellar Psf Calibration To Recover Operational Value From A Defocused Skysat Telescope, Phillip Linden, Hira Nadeem, Ross Losher, Venkataraman Krishnaswami
Small Satellite Conference
For large-scale Earth observation constellations, such as Planet’s SkySat fleet, a major challenge is mitigating the effects of post-launch optical aberrations, which can render an asset unusable. This paper presents a novel approach to recover operational value from SkySat-C5, which remained excluded from production for 8 years due to significant, uncorrectable focus deficit at launch. Our method leverages stars to calibrate a reliable Point Spread Function (PSF) used in a deconvolution process that restored the camera’s images to a usable level of quality.
Because there is no on-orbit focus mechanism, the only path to restoration is post-processing deconvolution using a …
Co-Optimization Of Optical Ground Station And Network Architecture For Secure And High-Capacity Satcom Ground Segments, Asher Novick, Romain Laigo, Laurie Paillier, Cédric Dautancourt, Julien Samaan, Pu Jian, Olivier Pinel
Co-Optimization Of Optical Ground Station And Network Architecture For Secure And High-Capacity Satcom Ground Segments, Asher Novick, Romain Laigo, Laurie Paillier, Cédric Dautancourt, Julien Samaan, Pu Jian, Olivier Pinel
Small Satellite Conference
Poster presented at the 2026 Small Satellite Conference