Digital Commons Network^™

Twinning The On-Orbit Power Behavior Of Small Satellites Using Time-Domain Solar And Load Modeling, Nithin Krishnan S S, Vishnupriya P K, Vishnu Unnikrishnan, Jr-Chiun Roger Tsai, Tensae Ali, Jesmin Jose, Athira B S

Small Satellite Conference

Accurate estimation of on-orbit power availability under dynamic attitude conditions is critical to the reliable design of small satellite electrical power subsystems. During tumbling, detumbling, and mode transitions, rapid variations in solar incidence, eclipse exposure, and subsystem demand introduce strong temporal fluctuations that conventional static or orbit-averaged budgeting cannot capture.

This work presents a modular, time-domain power budgeting framework that models the coupled evolution of power generation, consumption, and energy storage under near-realistic attitude and operational conditions. Solar generation is computed from the time-varying Sun–spacecraft geometry for a multi-panel spacecraft, with per-panel MPPT, deployment state, angle-of-incidence effects, and eclipse …

Water-Floating Experimental Validation Of Magnetic Decoupling Strategies For Electromagnetic Formation Flight Using Palm-Sized Satellites, Hideki Yoshikado, Atsushi Noda, Daisuke Wakao, Takuya Koiso, Masaru Ishida, Shogo Saito, Korehito Suzaki, Juichi Takahashi, Yuta Yamaguchi

Small Satellite Conference

Goal: a distributed space antenna built from 10,000+ palm-sized satellites, operating together as a single phased-array antenna for direct-to-device communication from orbit [1, 2].

Electromagnetic Formation Flight (EMFF) generates magnetic forces and torques between satellites by controlling their coil currents, enabling propellant-free control of relative position and attitude [3, 4, 5].

However, every coil interacts with every other coil, so unwanted pairs must be magnetically decoupled. Multi-satellite ground validation is also difficult: air-bearing facilities limit the number of units and the test area [6, 7].

This work presents a water-floating testbed and a ten-satellite experiment comparing two magnetic decoupling strategies.

Zerodur®: Comprehensive Data Enables The Reliability Of Evidence-Based Design, Dustin Ruth, Florian Gollier, Jesse Bonfeld, Dustin Ruth, Janina Krieg, Thomas Westerhoff, Tony Hull, Jacqueline Caraballo

Small Satellite Conference

ZERODUR® is a glass-ceramic formulated for high-performance optics under imperfect temperature control. Crystallites in a glass matrix balance expansion: crystals shrink while residual glass expands, preserving geometry at fine scale.

This yields the lowest passive thermal response of any optical material-enabling high-contrast, high-resolution, low-scatter imaging and minimal transmission leakage for SmallSat telescopes.

Autongc: One Small High-Fidelity Testbed, One Giant Leap For Autonomous Gn&C At The Moon, Sean Semper, Justin Clavette, Katherine Fowee Gasaway, Hossein Mohammadkhan, Nickalas Cason, Liam Greenlee, Joseph Patton, Grant Ryden, Behnam Azimi, Michael Romeo, Sun Hur Diaz

Small Satellite Conference

Objective:  

• Sustained human presence at Moon/Mars requires autonomous navigation  
• Reduce dependency on human-in-the-loop ground control  
• Enable onboard rapid GN&C in cislunar environment  
• Support multiple measurement types for robust navigation 

Lightweight Open Source On-Spacecraft Machine Learning With Mlpack And F Prime, Ryan R. Curtin, Scott M. Gilliland, Sterling L. Peet

Small Satellite Conference

Onboard machine learning is an increasingly important topic in spaceflight systems, as machine learning and AI models are increasingly used for data processing, anomaly detection, attitude control systems, and other predictive applications. However, successfully deploying a machine learning model in a spaceflight computing environment is fraught with difficulty, as spaceflight computing environments are low-resource, but typical machine learning software solutions are implemented in languages like Python, which require an interpreter and other heavyweight dependencies. It is therefore virtually mandatory for any on-spacecraft machine learning to be written with lightweight toolkits that minimize dependencies and resource usage.

We demonstrate a solution …

A Novel Deployable Telescope For Small Satellites Using Adaptive Optic Technology, William Hill, Harbinder Rana, Darren Jones, Trevor Wood, Zac Thomas, Thomas Lacy, Duncan Housden, Calum Meredith

Small Satellite Conference

SSTL has been developing a deployable telescope with funding from the UK Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA). The aim of the study was to design a telescope that could achieve higher resolutions in the visible spectrum while utilising a smaller launch volume. To achieve a cost-effective launch the deployable system has been sized such that it would fit within a representative SSTL platform in a SpaceX Falcon 9 small satellite launch volume. A monolithic system with equivalent performance would require a larger launch volume and, therefore, it is expected that a deployable telescope can secure an overall mission price advantage. …

Scaling Up Monolithic Optics Capabilities: 25cm Aperture And Beyond, Cohl Houldin Hatala, Jordan Smilo, Wim De Vries, Brian Bauman, Christian Tolfa, John Cortes, Paul Rosso, Aaron Godfrey, Darrell Carter, Michael Wong, Seth Cornman, Josephine Smith, John Ganino, Ben Bahney

Small Satellite Conference

The 25 cm “V10” Monolithic Optical Payload has been developed through study phase design into a fully qualified system ready for on-orbit demonstration. This extends Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s monolithic telescope technology toward a rapidly fieldable, high performance space imaging system for small and medium spacecraft buses. Centered on the V10 monolithic Cassegrain optic in fused silica, the payload provides highly robust, diffraction limited performance with inherently maintained mirror alignment, eliminating complex on orbit alignment procedures and significantly reducing mechanical risk. The V10 optic is paired with a heritage focus mechanism and a panchromatic commercial off the shelf CMOS detectors, …

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

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

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

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

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 …

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

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 …

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, …

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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 …

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

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 …

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

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

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

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 …