Digital Commons Network^™

Reusable Electron: Analysis Of Progress Toward The World's First Reusable Commercial Small Rocket, Lars Hoffman, Murielle Baker, Shane Glynn, Matt Darley, Peter Beck

Small Satellite Conference

Leading end-to-end space company Rocket Lab has significantly advanced its rocket reusability program over the past 12 months, bringing the Electron launch vehicle closer to becoming the world’s first reusable commercial orbital class small rocket. Applying the concept of a circular economy to rocketry, Rocket Lab’s reusability of Electron is expected to produce benefits to the space industry including reduced environmental pressure, innovation in rocket reuse technology, better sustainability of material supply, and lower launch costs to the burgeoning small satellite market.

Rocket Lab’s concept of operations for rocket recovery includes the capture of a returning Electron first stage mid-air …

Remote Sensing Experiments Using The Rogue-Alpha,Beta Cubesats As A Constellation: High Frame Rate Environmental Observations From Agile, Taskable, Infrared And Visible Sensors In Low Earth Orbit, Dee W. Pack, Pradeep Thiyanaratnam, Tom Freeze, Brian S. Hardy, John R. Santiago, David Pietrowski, Jon C. Mauerhan, Patrick D. Johnson, Paul F. Zittel, Cameron R. Purcell

Small Satellite Conference

The Aerospace Corporation’s Rogue-alpha,beta program built and launched two 3-Unit CubeSats in 18-months, each equipped with modified commercial infrared camera payloads, visible context cameras, laser communications and precision pointing capabilities. Launched on November 2, 2019, the two spacecraft (Rogue-alpha and beta) were boosted and released from the International Space Station Cygnus NG-12 robotic resupply spacecraft on January 31, 2020 into a circular 460-km, 52° inclined orbit. The primary Rogue IR sensor is a 1.4-micron band, 640x512 pixel, 28° field of view, InGaAs short wavelength infrared (SWIR) camera. It is accompanied by a panchromatic, 10-megapixel, 37° field of view visible context …

Multi-Spectral Imaging From Leo: High-Resolution Images And Data From The Napa-2 Turn-Key Mission, Hugo Brouwer, George Dimitriadis, Hong Yang Oei, Zeger De Groot, Ferenc Nemeth, Philip Bouwer, Thinus Prinsloo

Small Satellite Conference

Napa-2 is a 6U Earth observation satellite flying the Simera Sense MultiScape 100CIS: a 7-band multi-spectral line-scan imager. Together with an on-ground calibration and processing chain from Pinkmatter Solutions, the Napa-2 system can deliver high-quality multi-spectral line scan images at an impressive ground sampling distance of 5m. After its launch and deployment in July 2021, hundreds of line scan images have been taken and valuable (and critical) data was obtained from the spacecraft platform related to attitude and control and timing. Imperative to the success of obtaining high-quality images, was the implementation of the newly developed ISISPACE Attitude Determination and …

Near Earth Asteroid Scout - Mission Update, Les Johnson, Erin Betts, Andrew Heaton, Clif Jones, Leslie Mcnutt, Matt Pruitt, Jim Stott, Darren Wallace, Rick Wilson, Julie Castillo-Rogez, Gregory Lantoine, Calina Seybold, Ted Sweetser

Small Satellite Conference

After its deployment from NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS), the Near-Earth Asteroid (NEA) Scout mission will travel to and image an asteroid during a close flyby using an 86m2 solar sail as its primary propulsion. Solar sails are large, mirror-like structures made of a lightweight material that reflects sunlight to propel the spacecraft. The continuous solar photon pressure provides thrust with no need for the heavy, expendable propellants used by conventional chemical and electric propulsion systems. Developed by NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) and Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), the NEA Scout is based on the industry-standard CubeSat form factor. …

Capstone: A Summary Of Flight Operations To Date In The Cislunar Environment, Thomas Gardner, Brad Cheetham, Jeff Parker, Alec Forsman, Ethan Kayser, Michael Thompson, Connor Ott, Lauren Demoudt, Matt Bolliger, Arlen Kam, Keith Thompson, Tristan Latchu, Rebecca Rogers, Brennan Bryant, Tomas Svitek

Small Satellite Conference

The cislunar environment is about to get much busier and with this increase in traffic comes an increase in the demand for limited resources such as Earth based tracking of and communications with assets operating in and around the Moon. With the number of NASA, commercial, and international missions to the Moon growing rapidly, the need to make these future endeavors as efficient as possible is a challenge that is being solved now. Advanced Space is aiming to mitigate these resource limitations by enabling spacecraft in the cislunar environment to navigate autonomously and reduce the need for oversubscribed ground assets …

Low-Thrust Reconfiguration Strategy For Flexible Satellite Constellations, Federica Paganelli Azza, Pietro De Marchi, Matteo Stoisa, Paolo Gennaro Madonia

Small Satellite Conference

Flexible and responsive space systems are needed to satisfy changing mission requirements and react to unforeseen challenges. Reconfigurable constellations are a promising approach to overcome limitations of the current design philosophy, offering operators the ability to actively adapt the constellation configuration to future needs, promptly modifying their pattern to focus the available resources towards dynamic objectives. This work introduces a low-thrust reconfiguration strategy to optimize these constellations through a multiobjective Genetic Algorithm able to trade-off between observation performance over a desired target area and maneuvering cost to reach the new pattern. The presented approach is validated in a LEO scenario, …

Gei-Sat Constellation For Greenhouse Gases Detection And Quantification, Marcos Ubierna, Manuel Montesino, Eider Ocerin, Roberto Fabrizi, Tania Meixus Fernandez

Small Satellite Conference

GEI-SAT constellation will embark SATLANTIS’ solution for methane emissions detection and quantification. GEI-SAT pursues hot spot mapping of low emission levels of methane with a low-mass and low-cost very high-resolution multispectral SWIR camera onboard CubeSats & Microsats. The overall mission consists of: GEI-SAT Precursor, a 16U CubeSat (17.4 kg, ~150 kg/h detection threshold, 1.65 m resolution @VNIR and 13 m resolution @SWIR, up to 1700 nm) to be launched in Q1 2023; GEI-SAT Plus, a Microsat (92 kg, ~100 kg/h detection threshold, 0.8 m resolution @VNIR and ~7 m resolution @SWIR, up to 1700 nm) to be launched in Q4 …

On Trusting Third-Party Satellite Data, Sean Crosby, Kurt Brenning

Small Satellite Conference

Increased access to space has opened the door to many satellite vendors. These vendors are collecting data using a variety of sensors, including electro-optical, radio frequency, and synthetic aperture radar. Customers want true-sourced, authentic data. However, as with any lower barrier to entry, the risk of counterfeit, tampered, or low-quality products increases. In this work, we describe the key requirements for trusting imagery and present a hardware design and a system of controls that meet those requirements of trust for Earth imaging satellites. Our trusted hardware provides assurance of capture time, location, and preserves the content and origin by capturing …

Developing Lunar Flashlight And Near-Earth Asteroid Scout Flight Software Concurrently Using Open-Source F Prime Flight Software Framework, Aadil Rizvi, Kevin F. Ortega, Yutau He

Small Satellite Conference

NASA’s Lunar Flashlight (LF) and Near-Earth Asteroid (NEA) Scout CubeSat missions are planned to launch in 2022. Lunar Flashlight is a low-cost secondary payload concept that will map the lunar South Pole for volatiles and demonstrate several technological firsts, including the first planetary CubeSat mission to use green propulsion, and the first mission to use lasers to look for water ice. NEA Scout is a low-cost concept that will map an asteroid and demonstrate several technological firsts, including being the first CubeSat to reach an asteroid.

Flight software for both CubeSat missions is based on the open-source F Prime Flight …

Asteria In-Orbit Testing On Opssat: An On-Board Autonomous Orbit Control Solution Including Collision Risks Avoidance, Francois Toussaint, Jerome Thomassin, Sophie Laurens

Small Satellite Conference

For several years, CNES has been working on Flight Dynamics algorithms to ensure high level of autonomy for next generation of space missions. One example of these autonomous techniques is the Autonomous Orbital Control, which consists of delegating to onboard satellite system the identification, planning and realization of orbital corrections to stay in the mission reference orbit. ASTERIA, an application of on-board autonomy combining station keeping and collision risk management for the low earth orbit satellites, enables both in-track and cross-track control for different LEO missions. The on-board collision risk management process is fully integrated into the autonomous station keeping …

Disksat: Demonstration Mission For A Two-Dimensional Satellite Architecture, Richard Welle, Catherine Venturini, David Hinkley, Joseph Gangestad, Sara Grasso, Anastasia Muszynski, Roger Hunter, Chad Frost, David Mayer, Christopher Baker

Small Satellite Conference

The DiskSat is a quasi-two-dimensional satellite bus architecture designed for applications requiring high power, large apertures, and/or high maneuverability in a low-mass containerized satellite. A representative DiskSat structure is a composite flat panel, one meter in diameter and 2.5 cm thick. The volume is almost 20 liters, equivalent to a hypothetical 20U CubeSat, while the structural mass is less than 3 kg. The surface area is large enough to host over 200 W of solar cells without deployable solar panels. For launch, multiple DiskSats are stacked in a fully enclosed container/deployer using a simple mechanical interface and are released individually …

Advanced Smallsat Thermal Analysis Using Reduced-Order Models, Jacob Moulton, Derek Hengeveld, Jamie Eyre

Small Satellite Conference

High-power Small Satellites (SmallSats) have the potential to provide new and advanced capabilities for missions beyond low Earth orbit; however, certain challenges prevent wide-spread use. Of these, thermal management of high-heat loads is significant. Therefore, efficient, and effective thermal modeling and analysis methods are becoming increasingly more important, as reliable predictions of thermal behavior in SmallSat components and systems can significantly drive key design and mission-operation parameters. Thermal modeling and analysis efforts have traditionally relied on computer simulations that are often complex and computationally expensive. When properly developed, reduced-order models (ROMs) can overcome these challenges by providing a computationally efficient …

Attitude Control Calibration And Experiment Testbed To Characterize Attitude Determination And Control System Performance, Jordan H. Hsieh, Jing-Yuan Huang, Thomas Yen, Sam Lee, Austin Chang, Luke Hou

Small Satellite Conference

This paper describes the design, development, and construction of an attitude control testbed to investigate the performance of ADCS. The Testbed consists of three instruments, an air-bearing platform, a Helmholtz cage, and an AM0 spectrum solar simulator. The Testbed in this research features the capability to measure the mass properties of the tested satellite. One of the motivations of this paper is to share the experience while building this highly automated Testbed. Finally, the procedure of the mass properties measurement will be well described in this paper.

Simplifying Thermal Analysis For Space, Laura Gonzalez, David Criado Pernía

Small Satellite Conference

In space, satellites are subject to an extreme environment. However, their subsystems are designed to operate within a limited range of temperatures, so pre-emptive thermal analyses avoid their malfunctioning and failure. Regarding CubeSats, a significant number of missions neglected thermal analysis in the early days. Nonetheless, in recent years, nanosatellites have experienced a continuous increase in both mass and power, evincing a crucial need for thermal management.

Radian is a thermal analysis software conceived to provide agility to engineers, both at modelling and computing processes. Our software is accessible through a regular web browser and counts on a scalable network …

On-Orbit Data And Validation Of Astra's Ace Electric Propulsion System, Matthew Gill, Rafael Martinez, Alex Zannos, Todd Bailey, Michael Cassidy, Jim Cooney, Alex Crawford, Jason Cuadra, Jorge Delgado, Jon Fuller, Maureen Haverty, Mark Hopkins, Edward Keyes, Lauren Lee, Dean Massey, Kevin Mcclellan, Jamillah Pittman, Michael Schmidt, Dhaval Shiyani, Todd Sorel

Small Satellite Conference

The first ACE propulsion system reached orbit on July 1^st 2021 as part of Spaceflight’s demonstration of the Sherpa-LTE all-electric Orbital Transfer Vehicle (OTV). We are now able to share on-orbit data and have successfully verified the on-orbit performance of the ACE propulsion system, using xenon propellent. The mission objective was to lower altitude and use on-orbit data to derive performance, correlating the propulsion system’s performance to ground test data. The demonstration consisted of activating the propulsion system for 5- minute durations at a total input power of 340 W into the Power Processing Unit (PPU). Altitude change and …

Iris Transponder Enhancements For Deep Space And Lunar Operations, Dana Sorensen, Tom Russell, Tim Neilsen, Jon Hunt, Zaid Towfic

Small Satellite Conference

No abstract provided.

Task Oriented Programming For The Rc64 Manycore Dsp, Ran Ginosar, Peleg Aviely

Small Satellite Conference

RC64 is a rad-hard manycore DSP combining 64 VLIW/SIMD DSP cores, lock-free shared memory, a hardware scheduler and a task-based programming model. The hardware scheduler enables fast scheduling and allocation of fine grain tasks to all cores. Parallel programming is based on Tasks.

Architecture Of High Power Nanosatellites, Boris Yendler, Andrew Kalman

Small Satellite Conference

Current CubeSat architecture has been developed “ad hoc” throughout multiple years with main goals of creating mechanically stable, sufficiently lightweight and low-cost structure. From their conception up to the current times, thermal issues in CubeSats have been of little concern due to relatively low power consumption. Typically, to accommodate a considerable number of different components in a CubeSat, the components are mounted on brackets. The brackets are connected to external panels which radiate waste heat into space. This heat path, from a component to a radiator, typically has a high thermal resistance which worsens the thermal performance of the satellite. …

G-Class Avionics: An Australian Common Sense Avionics Framework, Shaun Kenyon, Philippe Laniakea, Pierfranco Valitutti

Small Satellite Conference

The Australian space industry is undergoing a big bang. Mission concepts and technologies are developing for everything from Launch, CubeSat and larger LEO missions and even interplanetary missions. Gilmour Space Technologies is developing solutions for all space domains, and is also building a strategic supply chain to enable sovereign capability. An important part of this strategy is the development and adoption of a common technical framework for space-qualified avionics that can be adapted for use on Next-generation Australian spacecraft, from low-cost rapid LEO missions to advanced interplanetary missions.

Initial Assessment Of A Generative Adversarial Approach To Rover Path Planning Supported By Space-Based Assets, Guglielmo Daddi, Nicolaus Notaristefano, Fabrizio Stesina, Sabrina Corpino

Small Satellite Conference

No abstract provided.

Making Space For Nasa's Core Flight System Applications, David Mccomas, William Tandy

Small Satellite Conference

NASA’s core Flight System (cFS) is an open-source flight software framework that runs successful space missions. However, even with growing adoption, cFS can have a challenging learning curve and incomplete documentation. Our new Base Camp toolkit is a new open-source approach developed to help remedy these problems for cFS applications.

Base Camp combines NASA Glenn Research Center’s cFS Electronic Data Sheet (EDS) toolchain and refactored components from the author’s OpenSatKit (OSK) to provide a lightweight, portable, python-based toolkit. This toolkit allows users to graphically interact with a cFS target running an OSK Runtime App Suite that provides essential functionality like …

Nea Mini Hdrm For Low Load Applications - Development And Qualification, Ruben Betancourt, Jason Nave

Small Satellite Conference

EBAD’s NEA® Mini hold-down and release mechanism (HDRM) was designed for lower load applications, such as those found in small satellite applications. The design was born from the popularity of small, inexpensive Nichrome burn wire solutions in the Small Satellite community, coupled with some associated failures of those devices that revealed the opportunity for a more reliable solution. EBAD adapted our GEO NEA® battery bypass switch into an HDRM for small sat applications, built and tested an initial prototype. These devices have the advantages of being small, light, low power, low shock, and high reliability. The prototype effort was conducted …

Mission Engineering And The Cubesat System Reference Model - Status #2, David Kaslow, Alejandro Levi, Bradley Ayres, David Hurst, Chuck Croney, Philip T. Cahill, Steven A. Maclaird

Small Satellite Conference

The International Council on Systems Engineering (INCOSE) Space System Working Group (SSWG) has created the CubeSat System Reference Model™ (CSRM™) intended for use by system architects and engineers as a starting point to develop the physical architecture of the Space and Ground segments of the CubeSat mission of interest to them. The CSRM is based on Model-Based System Engineering (MBSE) principles, is System Modeling Language™ (SysML™) v1.7 compliant, and hosted in a graphical modeling tool. The CSRM has been submitted to the Object Management Group (OMG) and is in the finalization process to become an OMG Specification.

With the development …

The Mini Astrophysical Mev Background Observatory (Mambo): A Cubesat Mission For Gamma-Ray Astronomy, Peter F. Bloser, Markus P. Hehlen, W. Thomas Vestrand, Kim Katko, Lucas Parker, Darrel Beckman, James Sedillo, Justin Mcglown

Small Satellite Conference

No abstract provided.

The Internet Ruins Everything: Explaining The Sixth Age Of Small Satellites, Mike Swartwout

Small Satellite Conference

No abstract provided.

A Custom Rideshare Payload Adapter For Greenhouse Gas Monitoring Microsatellites Launched In Tandem, Kevin Guan, Eric Van Velzen

Small Satellite Conference

The steep rise in the effects of climate change has opened new opportunities in space-based monitoring of greenhouse gases (GHG). The Space Flight Laboratory (SFL) is currently developing GHGSat-C3/C4/C5, a group of three Earth observation microsatellites to increase the GHGSat constellation’s emissions monitoring capabilities. Each microsatellite is deployed into orbit with the XPOD Delta, a spacecraft dispenser developed at SFL. This paper outlines the design of an XPOD Adapter for Launch in Tandem (XALT) to mount three GHGSat satellites on a SpaceX Rideshare launch. The driving requirements are presented along with XALT’s key design features, including provisions for ground support …

On-Orbit Characterization Of A Microelectromechanical Systems (Mems) Deformable Mirror (Dm) On The Deformable Mirror Demonstration Mission (Demi) Cubesat, Sophia Vlahakis

Small Satellite Conference

The Deformable Mirror Demonstration Mission (DeMi) CubeSat operated from July 2020 to March 2022 and demonstrated the successful operation of a Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) Deformable Mirror (DM) on orbit for the first time. The payload design is an adaptive optics system with a 140-actuator MEMS DM from the Boston Micromachines Corporation (BMC) and a Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor (SHWFS). DMs can correct wavefront errors from a variety of sources to improve image quality. MEMS DMs are particularly well suited for space systems because they are compact low power devices and have a high density of actuators with a large stroke to …

Recovery Of A Lost Satellite: The Armadillo Mission, Dillan Mcdonald

Small Satellite Conference

After 949 days in space, contact with the ARMADILLO CubeSat from the University of Texas at Austin has been established. After a complete reconstruction of the ground command software, the Space System Design Laboratory (SSDL) at Georgia Tech has commanded and received acknowledgements and data downlinks from ARMADILLO as well as commanded a hard reset. The Georgia Tech Ground Station Network (GT GSN) has leveraged its autonomous contact capability to maintain consistent contact with ARMADILLO, enabling it to remain online for longer than a week. Something ARMADILLO had previously never accomplished due to the ground contact condition for onboard reset …

Attitude Determination With Self-Inspection Cameras Repurposed As Earth Horizon Sensors, Atilla Saadat

Small Satellite Conference

Attitude determination for small satellites is a vital aspect of spacecraft operations. Earth Horizon Sensor(s) (EHS) are one of many sensors used in on-orbit attitude estimation. A conventional EHS captures infrared images of the Earth’s horizon and estimates the nadir vector in the spacecraft body frame, using the Earth’s curvature and prior knowledge of the spacecraft’s orbit. However, the design and test of new sensors increase mission cost and development time, while some spacecraft may not be able to accommodate such dedicated sensors. Therefore, it is beneficial if existing onboard optical sensors could be repurposed as effective EHS. The Space …

Empirical Methods For Reaction Wheel Micro-Vibration Verification In A Production Environment, Sobia Nadeem

Small Satellite Conference

There is great interest in high precision attitude control of satellites, in particular for missions that operate payloads with stringent pointing requirements. Reaction Wheels (RW) are an integral part of a satellite's Attitude Determination and Control System (ADCS). However, a drawback of using RWs is that due to imperfections such as rotor imbalance and bearing defects, RWs are a source of micro-vibration. These phenomena can lead to internal disturbances which in turn may lead to degraded mission performance.

Quantifying the micro-vibration generated by RWs is a critical and time intensive process. A two-step process to verify and characterize RW micro-vibration …