Digital Commons Network^™

Sagittarius A* Small Satellite Mission: Capabilities And Commissioning Preview, Caleb Royer, Mike Renner, Owen Brown, Robert Polutchko, Paul Bains, Sam Gagnard, Alex Herz, Mark Mason, Nick Stanley, John Eterno

Small Satellite Conference

SSCI is leading a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)-funded team launching a mission in June 2021, dubbed Sagittarius A*, to demonstrate key hardware and software technologies for on-orbit autonomy, to provide a software testbed for on-orbit developmental test & autonomous mission operations, and to reduce risk for future constellation-level mission autonomy and operations. In this paper, we present the system CONOPs and capabilities, system architectures, flight and ground software development status, and initial commissioning status. The system will fly on Loft Orbital’s YAM-3 shared LEO satellite mission, and includes SSCI’s onboard autonomy software suite running on an Innoflight CFC-400 …

A Low Power And High Performance Artificial Intelligence Approach To Increase Guidance Navigation And Control Robustness, Pablo Ghiglino, Mandar Harshe

Small Satellite Conference

New generations of spacecrafts are required to perform tasks with an increased level of autonomy. Space exploration, rendezvous services, space robotics, etc. are all growing fields in Space that require more sensors and more computational power to perform these missions. Furthermore, new sensors in the market produce better quality data at higher rates while new processors can increase substantially the computational power. Therefore, near-future spacecrafts will be equipped with large number of sensors that will produce data at rates that has not been seen before in space, while at the same time, data processing power will be significantly increased. In …

Optimizing Data Processing In Space For Object Detection In Satellite Imagery, Martina Lofqvist, José Cano

Small Satellite Conference

With the cost of launch plummeting, it is now easier than ever to get a satellite to orbit. This has led to a proliferation of the number of satellites launched each year, resulting in the downlinking of terabytes of data each day. The data received by ground stations is often unprocessed, making it an expensive process considering only a small amount of it is useful. This, coupled with the increasing demand for real-time data, has led to a growing need for on-orbit processing solutions. In this work, we investigate the performance of CNN-based object detectors on constrained devices by applying …

Constellation Modelling, Performance Prediction And Operations Management For The Spire Constellation, Jeroen Cappaert, Frantisek Foston, Pablo Sierra Heras, Barry King, Nick Pascucci, Jordan Reilly, Conor Brown, Joey Pitzo, Marcus Tallhamm

Small Satellite Conference

The operational complexity of managing the Spire constellation continually increases with the routine introduction of additional satellites and new capabilities. The heterogeneous nature of the satellites, payloads, and ground station configurations compounds the difficulty of strategic planning and operational scheduling. In order to efficiently operate this diverse network of assets, Spire developed a suite of bespoke constellation modeling and management tools that are designed to support existing demand and to scale for future needs. The modeling tools enable Spire to accurately simulate and optimize the performance of various constellation configurations prior to deployment. The operational tools required to harness the …

Autonomous Planning System (Aps) For An Onboard Tcped Pipeline, Ken Center, Ella Herz, Evan Sneath, Sam Gagnard, Robert Glissmann, Rey Juarez, Neil Dhingra

Small Satellite Conference

As satellites and spacecraft grow in number and operate farther from Earth, there is an emerging need for increased autonomy via onboard decision making that is independent of ground stations but allows for collaboration between teams of assets. Such autonomy will relieve the burden on human operators, enable faster responses to dynamic events, and reduce communications between orbital assets and ground stations. Orbit Logic’s Autonomous Planning System (APS) is flexible and customizable onboard software that enables teamed autonomy through the use of Tasking, Collection, Processing, Exploitation, and Dissemination (TCPED) pipelines onboard the satellites. Its small computational/memory footprint makes it especially …

Design And Testing Of Autonomous Distributed Space Systems, Nicholas Cramer, Daniel Cellucci, Caleb Adams, Adam Sweet, Mohammad Hejase, Jeremy Frank, Richard Levinson, Sergei Gridnev, Lara Brown

Small Satellite Conference

Distributed Space Systems (DSS) are an emerging class of mission designs that enable new scientific and commercial opportunities. In order to enable those new opportunities, these systems will need to have significantly expanded autonomous capabilities compared to their single-spacecraft predecessors. In this paper, we present Distributed Spacecraft Autonomy (DSA) project, a payload on NASA’s Starling spacecraft experiment. We first describe a step-by-step process for characterizing what features are needed in an autonomous DSS, and show how this process applied to DSA. We then describe the Starling mission, a four-spacecraft swarm hosting multiple DSS payloads. We then describe DSA, which will …

Efficient Smallsat Operation Using Scibox, Kristin Fretz, Ralf Perez, Teck Choo, Annette Mirantes, Warren Chen

Small Satellite Conference

Planning and commanding a space operation is inherently a very complex task requiring highly skilled operators from various disciplines coordinating in a timely manner to ensure both smooth and successful operation. This process can be performed manually, however, resolving conflicts quickly becomes an intensive iterative process that underuses a space system’s resources and renders it less responsive to sudden schedule changes. Increasingly complex space missions combined with the desire to maximize efficiency require a different approach. Responding to these challenges is SciBox, an autonomous planning and commanding system and a technology enabler for space operations, developed by the Johns Hopkins …

An Ai-Based Goal-Oriented Agent For Advanced On-Board Automation, Christian Cardenio, Lorenzo Feruglio, Alessandro Benetton, Mattia Varile, Temenuzhka Valentinova Avramova

Small Satellite Conference

In the context of fierce competition arising in the space economy, the number of satellites and constellations that will be placed in orbit is set to increase considerably in the upcoming years. In such a dynamic environment, raising the autonomy level of the next space missions is key to maintaining a competitive edge in terms of the scientific, technological, and commercial outcome.

We propose the adoption of an AI-based autonomous agent aiming to fully enable spacecraft’s goal-oriented autonomy. The implemented cognitive architecture collects input starting from the sensing of the surrounding operating environment and defines a low-level schedule of tasks …

Public Perception Of Uas And Vertiports In The Wastach Front Survey Results, Brent C. Chamberlain, Katelynn Hall, Keunhyun Park

Browse all Datasets

This project aims to further understand the current public perception of UAS and their integration into residential areas for package delivery through the development of vertiports The survey also aims to identify evidence of NIMBY (not in my backyard) in these perceptions. The survey specifically asked participants about demographics, familiarity with UAV, perceptions of UAV, and perceptions of vertiports through 6 different potential vertiport placements in residential of community center focused areas.

New Forces Influencing Savanna Conservation: Increasing Land Prices Driven By Gentrification And Speculation At The Landscape Scale, Peter Tyrrell, Robin Naidoo, David W. Macdonald, Johan T. Du Toit

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

Land transformation reduces biodiversity and regional sustainability, with land price being an indicator of the opportunity cost to a landowner of resisting land conversion. However, reliable spatially explicit databases of current land prices are generally lacking in developing countries. We used tools from data science to scrape 1,487 georeferenced land prices in southern Kenya from the internet. Prices were higher for land near cities and in areas of high agricultural productivity, but also around the Maasai Mara National Reserve. Predicted land prices ranged from US$662 to US$4,618,805 per acre. Land speculation associated with expanding urbanization increases the opportunity and acquisition …

Lightning Arc Channel Effects On Surface Damage Development On A Prseus Composite Panel: An Experimental Study, Dounia Boushab, Pedram Gharghabi, Juhyeong Lee, Thomas E. Lacy Jr., Charles U. Pittman Jr., Michael S. Mazzola, Alexander Velicki

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Faculty Publications

Composite aircraft structures are vulnerable to lightning strike damage due to their relatively low electrical and thermal conductivities. A preceding work has investigated the lightning damage resistance of a carbon-epoxy Pultruded Rod Stitched Efficient Unitized Structure (PRSEUS) panel. The damage includes intense local damage (i.e., matrix decomposition/sublimation, fiber rupture, delamination) accompanied by widespread surface damage (i.e., distributed fiber rupture and tow splitting) further from the lightning attachment point. This study focuses on investigating the cause of the widespread surface damage. Two possible driving mechanisms are explored: i) magnetically-induced currents and ii) lightning arc-root/channel expansion. …

Physics-Informed Structure-Preserving Numerical Approximations Of Thermodynamically Consistent Models For Non-Equilibrium Phenomena, Jia Zhao

Funded Research Records

No abstract provided.

Ph 11.3 Enhances The Solubility Of Potassium Silicate For Liquid Fertilizer, Brendan Fatzinger, Bruce Bugbee

Nutrients

Consistent delivery of up to 1 mM silicon (Si) to the root-zone is beneficial for plant health, but the maximum solubility of silicon is only 1.7 mM between pH 4 and 8. This makes Si difficult to concentrate and add through a proportioner in liquid fertilizer systems. The solubility of Si begins to increase with increasing pH above 9. We added potassium silicate (K₂SiO₃) and fumed silica (SiO₂) to RO water that was pH adjusted to pH 5, 8, 9, 10, or 11 with either KOH or NaOH. Samples were filtered and dried to …

Spectrum Sensing Of Cognitive Radio For Leo Cubesat Swarm Inter-Communication, Chengtao M. Xu, Thomas Yang, Houbing H. Song

Small Satellite Conference

Low earth orbit CubeSat swarms provide improvement in the spatial and temporal resolution of remote sensing, rural communication and space exploration due to their innovative and economical satellite design. Unlike conventional large satellites, which demand high transmission power for data exchange, the CubeSat swarm communication system provides interoperability, high data rate between networked nodes, and global coverage with real-time measurement. The main challenges facing CubeSat swarms include inefficient usage of spectrum resources and increased delay of data exchange, and the issues become more severe with increased number of on-orbit CubeSats. Often, Spectrum sensing in cognitive radio is proposed as a …

Towards High Data Rate Hybrid Rf/Optical Lunar Communication Architecture, Dylan Shadoan, Ethan Abele, Waseem Raza, Fahim Hossain, Behnaz Sadr, John O'Hara, Peter Lopresti, Ickhyun Song, Wooyeol Choi, Peter Lopresti, Ali Imran, Serhat Altunc, Obadiah Kegege, Sabit Ekin

Small Satellite Conference

Background

Motivation

Lunar science and exploration is set to explode in the coming decade.

• NASA's Artemis Project will send first woman and next man to the moon by 2024 [1].
• Dozens of additional Lunar missions are planned by 2028 [2].
• Lunar missions will include human crews, rovers, smallSats, and more

These missions will require a reliable and high data rate network.

La Jument: Student Created Cubesat For Remote Sensing And Software Testing, Eugene Park, David Barnhart, David Gutierrez, Eva Prestamo, Morgan Farrier, Spencer Wedel, Stephen Hunt

Small Satellite Conference

La Jument is USC’s 4th CubeSat mission built in partnership with Lockheed Martin to carry their payload to Low Earth Orbit (LEO). USC’s primary research goal for this project is creating a transmission system between the student run ground station at USC’s campus and the spacecraft in orbit.

Exploring The Det Vs Mppt Trade For Cubesat To Espa Sized Earth-Orbiting Spacecraft, Aaron Aboaf, Jerome Hittle

Small Satellite Conference

Previous research has evaluated different EPS topologies from efficiency, reliability, and cost perspectives, but has yet to incorporate orbital dynamics and mission attitude constraints into the overall evaluation of the most effective eps topology for a specific mission's needs. For efficient system architecture design, systems engineers must quickly assess the orbit-average maximum load that can be accommodated based on the orbit, pointing constraints, solar array collection area, and EPS efficiency to determine operational feasibility. The authors present preliminary findings showing that attitude constraints and the inclination/β-angle have significant effects on the available energy the spacecraft can capture and …

Cost Considerations For Estimating Smallsat I&T, Rachel Sholder, Kathy Kha

Small Satellite Conference

In the early phases of project formulation, mission integration and test (I&T) costs are typically estimated via a wrap factor approach, analogies to similar missions adjusted for mission specifics, or a Bottom Up Estimate (BUE). The wrap factor approach estimates mission I&T costs as a percentage of payload and spacecraft hardware costs. This percentage is based on data from historical missions, with the assumption that the project being estimated shares similar characteristics with the underlying data set used to develop the wrap factor. This technique has worked well for traditional spacecraft builds since typically as hardware costs grow, I&T test …

Development Of A Power-Efficient, Low Cost, And Flash Fpga Based On-Board Computer For Small-Satellites, Anant Kandala, Ankit Verma, Sanidhya Vijaywat, Ansuman Palo, Amal Chandran, Priyadarshnam Hari, Harsha Simha, R. Sudharshan Kaarthik

Small Satellite Conference

On-Board Computers (OBCs) for Small-satellite missions are typically required to be designed using industrial grade Commercial-of-the-shelf (COTS) components due to budget constraints and short mission duration. The OBC must provide a variety of interfaces due to the diverse nature of COTS subsystems having different interface definitions. Traditional OBC designs with standard microcontrollers have fixed interfaces that require modification of the motherboard circuit/layout when the external interfaces require changes. Thus, a possible solution is to have an FPGA in-addition to the micro-controller thereby providing a configurable interface capability. System-on-Chip (SoC) devices that integrate a microcontroller with FPGA fabric provide an ideal …

The Magdrive Propulsion Systems For Space Debris Management, Thomas Clayson, H. Franks, James Bass, Charlie Clark, H. Eshbaugh, David Salmon, C. Stavrou, S. Theocharous, Mark Stokes

Small Satellite Conference

Active space debris removal

Tens of thousands of large debris objects 1u or bigger currently in LEO, posing a risk to current and future missions.

Propulsion required for frequent and rapid collision avoidance. Adds significantly to the spacecraft mass and mission cost.

Active debris removal Removal of debris using another satellite. Companies looking at this include:

Astroscale

Clearspace

Busek ORDER

Lessons Learned From Aiv In Esa’S Fly Your Satellite! Educational Cubesat Programme, Cristina Del Castillo-Sancho, Gilberto Grassi, Alexander Kinnaird, Aldous Mills, David Palma

Small Satellite Conference

‘Fly Your Satellite!’ (FYS) is a recurring hands-on programme conducted by the ESA (European Space Agency) Academy Unit of ESA’s Education Office. Fly Your Satellite! was established to support university student teams in the development of their own CubeSats by enabling a transfer of knowledge and experience from ESA specialists to students. Selected teams are guided through project reviews and supervised through design consolidation and verification activities, conducted according to ESA professional practice and to standards tailored to fit the scope of university CubeSat projects.

This paper focuses on key lessons learned and issues identified during the ongoing verification activities …

Connecting Mission Profiles And Radiation Vulnerability Assessment, Richard H. Nederlander, Kaitlyn L. Ryder, Arthur F. Witulski, Gabor Karsai, Nag Mahadevan, Brian D. Sierawski, Ronald D. Schrimpf, Robert A. Reed, Michael J. Campola, Rebekah A. Austin

Small Satellite Conference

Radiation vulnerability assessment early in spacecraft development is cheaper and faster than in late development phases. RGENTIC and SEAM are two software platforms that can be coupled to provide this type of early assessment. Specifically, RGENTIC is a tool that outputs descriptions of radiation risks based on a selected mission environment and the system’s electronic part portfolio, while SEAM models how radiation-induced faults in electronic parts propagate through a system. In this work, we propose a spacecraft evaluation flow where RGENTIC’s outputs, which are radiation vulnerabilities of electronic parts for a given mission, become inputs to SEAM, resulting in an …

Microsatellite Constellation For Mars Communication And Navigation, Valentina Marchese, Karthik V. Mani, Luca Vigna, Alessandro Novero, Francesca Ingiosi, Federico Miglioretti, Simone Simonetti, Stefania Cornara, Pablo Hermosin Herrera, Stefania Tonetti, Giovanni Pandolfi, Stefan Vlad Tudor, Davide Melli, Steve Lingard, John Underwood, Louis Walpot, Helena Vicente De Castro

Small Satellite Conference

Exploration of Mars and establishment of human settlement have been of sharp interest for several decades. Since the turn of the century, efforts have been ramped up to make these a reality. With the execution of multiple robotic exploration missions and several more planned missions in the next two decades, as well as serious plans for human landing missions, a key need is the establishment of accurate, reliable, expansive, and cost-effective positioning and communication service for several users in the Mars environment. The Mars Communication and Navigation (MCN) mission is a multi-satellite constellation at Mars that shall provide data relay …

Intelligence And Autonomy In The Sat4eo+ Satellite, Murray Kerr, Stefania Cornara, Antonio Ramirez

Small Satellite Conference

The responsiveness of an Earth observation (EO) service, in terms of the time from the initiation of satellite tasking after an End User request is accepted, until the availability of the Earth Observation product to the End User, is a key metric in many applications, such as security, disaster monitoring and nowcasting, and more generally in enhanced-NRT services.

Elecnor DEIMOS is currently developing its next proprietary Very-High Resolution (VHR) small satellite [1][2], Sat4EO+, to meet current and upcoming market needs for Earth Observation products derived from a sub-meter optical imaging capability. Sat4EO+ is an agile low-cost ~200kg VNIR optical satellite, …

Maximize Contact Availability Of Smallsat Clusters Through Mspa Technique On Gsaas, Giovanni Bortoletto, Francesco Stigliano, Davide Melli, Daniel Martin, Federico Gardosi

Small Satellite Conference

The Mission

Launch date: 07 November 2021

Mission name: KSM1 (Kleos Scouting Mission)

Satellites names: KSM1-A, KSM1-B, KSM1-C, KSM1-D

NORAD-ID: 46912, 46914, 46906, 46907

Application: RF Reconnaissance and Geospatial Intelligence

Mission characteristics:

Kleos Space SA (KSS) Scouting Mission (KSM) first cluster of spacecraft, was launched on the 7th of November 2021, comprising four 6U cubesat flying in a close formation. The formation maintains the along and across track distance between the four spacecraft, enabling KSS proprietary algorithms to geolocate Radio Frequency transmitters.

GSaaS:

• Leaf Space provides communication through their Leaf Line GSaaS (Ground Segment as-a-Service) with stations in Italy and …

The Linkstar Cybersecurity "Sandbox" - A Platform To Test Cubesat Vulnerabilities Within The Small Satellite Community, Andrew Santangelo

Small Satellite Conference

Cubesats are becoming ubiquitous in Low Earth Orbit with operators ranging from the U.S. Government to commercial businesses, university teams and even hobbyists. However cubesats are vulnerable to range of cyberattacks on the ground segment, the link segment and the Space Segment. Testing and understanding the range of threats to all segments of a cubesat mission can be daunting, especially for teams that are not well funded or lack the resources for test and development. sci_Zone with the AIAA and the Aerospace Cybersecurity Working Group created the LinkStar Cybersecurity Cubesat Test Platform, a sandbox to test vulnerabilities a cubesat can …

Smallsat Images Need "Closed-Form Method For Atmospheric Correction" (Cmac), David Groeneveld, Tim Ruggles, Nahid Hasan, M. M. Farhad, Iftekhar Chowdhury, Mahi Uddin, Neha Khadka

Small Satellite Conference

A new method to correct any satellite to surface reflectance is undergoing completion to be ready for commercial release in two years. The method applies a conceptual model based on observations of the change in reflectance caused by atmospheric transmission and uses only scene statistics to correct images in near real-time.

Using The Decision Tree To Help Scientists Navigate The Commercial Access To Space (Ats) Options, Robert Caffrey

Small Satellite Conference

The Access to Space (ATS) Value Chain

1. Payload
2. Rideshare Adapters
3. Rideshare Spacecraft
4. Rideshare Providers
5. Hosted P/L Approach
6. Commercial Insurance
7. GDS/MOC Systems
8. Launch Vehicle

A 'Smad' Tool For Nano And Micro Satellites, Amitha Saleem, Amal Chandran, Sarthak Srivastava

Small Satellite Conference

Most of the Space Mission Analysis and Design (SMAD) tools available in the industry are geared towards small and large satellites. The relationships for satellite mass, power, volume, pointing accuracy, design life versus cost available in the literature are primarily from satellite platforms 100 kg and higher, built for 3+ years mission life. Nano and microsatellites use a very different design philosophy leveraging Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) components, minimal redundancy, higher risk, have rapid development times and shorter mission durations. Here, we present a nano and microsatellite mission design tool built on a database containing about 140 earth-orbiting satellites. The database contains …

Combining Cubesat Modularity And Integration A Unified Cubesat-Pocketqube Board Standard, Geffen Avraham

Small Satellite Conference

The evolution of CubeSat construction and architecture took a turn in 2012, when a new paradigm for CubeSat design was presented by Tyvak. Previously, most CubeSats had consisted of vertically stacked modular boards, each designed for a specific subsystem. The presentation called to light:

• Smartphone electronics are compact and tightly integrated, as opposed to large interchangeable desktop parts
• CubeSats could do the same to integrate components into a single board.
• Modularity was wasteful of space.