Digital Commons Network^™

Improving Ground Station By Reducing System Noise And Losses, Peter W. Pachowicz, Paul Chominski, Jay Deorukhkar

Small Satellite Conference

This paper presents the GMU SatCom Ground Station design and implementation which is dedicated to increasing the quality of a communication downlink by reducing system noises and losses in the receiver path. The design follows practices of the Earth-Moon-Earth (EME) communication community. This effort was focused on the design of the LFA-type Yagi antennas, lightweight ultra-low noise amplifiers, small BPF filters, and combining polarizations through Software Define Radio (SDR) rather than at the antenna feed. All designs presented were implemented and tested. While the UHF path had a priority in our effort, a design of the VHF path is also …

Seirios: A Demonstration Of Space Infrared Interferometer By Formation Flying Of Micro-Satellites, Satoshi Ikari, Hirotaka Kondo, Shinichi Nakasuka

Small Satellite Conference

In several decades, space infrared interferometer missions with formation flying have been proposed, but most of the missions were relinquished because their requirements for position and attitude control of satellites are extremely accurate. In order to overcome this issue, we propose to apply the densified pupil spectroscopy to relax control requirements of the baseline distance and attitude to overlap the rays. SEIRIOS is a micro-satellite project to demonstrate the concept of space infrared interferometer with the densified pupil spectrograph. The interferometer is constructed by one 50kg class micro-satellite and two 9U CubeSats in line. The micro-satellite is placed at the …

Hot-Fire Thruster Testing Approach At University Level, Raul A. Cuevas, Pilar Gonzalez Rueda Flores, Amelia D. Greig, Jack Chessa, Ahsan R. Choudhuri

Small Satellite Conference

Technological advancements in chemical propulsion systems leading to increased interest and new applications for small satellites in recent years has created a need for additional testing resources and targeted workforce development. Generally, chemical propulsion testing requires interactions with hazardous materials and environments, which presents significant challenges in a university setting. The Center for Aerospace Exploration and Technology Research (cSETR) at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) has developed a sustainable hot-fire testing program for chemical thrusters that is operated by undergraduate and graduate students. The program is managed analogous to testing programs in professional settings to enable reliable …

Navigation And Control Performance Utilizing Precision Formation Flying Along A Propellent Optimized Trajectory For The Vtxo Mission, Kyle Rankin, John Krizmanic, Hyeongjun Park, Neerav Shah, Steven Stochaj, Philip Calhoun

Small Satellite Conference

The Virtual Telescope for X-Ray Observations (VTXO) is part of a new generation of distributed component, long focal length telescopes which promise to provide orders of magnitude improvement in angular resolution in the X-ray band over the current state of the art. VTXO will include Phased Fresnel Lenses (PFL), which provide nearly diffraction-limited imaging, with around a 1 km focal length carried by the Optics Spacecraft (OSC), which will fly in a precision formation with the Detector Spacecraft (DSC) approximating a rigid telescope body, with the telescope achieving nearly 50 milli-arcsecond angular resolution in the 4.5 – 6.7 keV X-ray …

Design Approaches For Maintaining Autonomous Determinism Within A Small Sat System-Of-Systems, Kristin Fretz, Owen Gaulle

Small Satellite Conference

Fault Management (FM) is the systems engineering activity focused on the detection of faults, accommodation for off-nominal behavior of a system, and the completion of critical sequences. It encompasses the functional requirements distributed throughout the spacecraft and ground elements that enable prevention, detection, isolation, and recovery from events that upset nominal operations. In contrast, autonomy is a software engineering function that implements a subset of FM requirements allocated to a monitor-response software architecture. While FM and autonomy functions are not directly impacted by spacecraft size, the nature of SmallSat missions with their applications to constellations and systems-of-systems for formation flying, …

Cubesat Constellation For Interplanetary Market Intelligence And Private Claims In Space, Jacob Irwin, Eric Ward

Small Satellite Conference

Mission Objectives

• Deployment of Beacons, each rendezvous with NEAs' Small-Body Orbit
• Data Collection comprising a universal cadastre
• Sensors/Instrumentation: Geolocations and In-Space Activity Capture
• Integration with Service Providers through API
• Cooperation with Domestic and International Regulatory Agencies

Flight Model Development Of The Agu Remote Innovative Cubesat Alert System - Arica, Yasuyo Hata, Takanori Sakamoto, Motoko Serino, Maomao Duan, Tomoya Watanabe, Yuki Gouma, Hikaru Takahashi, Yuki Ueda, Yuto Nagamine, Teruaki Enoto, Yuuki Wada, Yoichi Yatsu

Small Satellite Conference

We present the flight model development of the 1U CubeSat, AGU Remote Innovative CubeSat Alert system (ARICA), which is scheduled to be launched in the Japanese fiscal year 2021 as the JAXA Innovative Satellite Technology Demonstration-2 project. The main goal of ARICA is to demonstrate the real-time alert system of the transient astronomical sources using commercial satellite network devices. The development of the flight components has been finished in April 2021. The thermal vacuum test was conducted at the end of April 2021. The vibration and shock tests were performed in May 2021. We are currently in the final stage …

Osam-2 Capabilities, Trey Clinton, Sean Lantto

Small Satellite Conference

Archinaut Development

• Phase 1: Additive Manufacturing proven in a simulated LEO environment in June 2017
• Phase 1 Option: Combination demonstrated in a simulated LEO environment in September 2018
• Phase 2: Class D NASA flight demonstration mission to autonomously manufacture polymer beams on orbit

Optimising Microsatellite Networks For Iot, Kody Cook

Small Satellite Conference

The Internet of Things (IoT) is having a profound impact on the way we understand the world and its inhabitants. One of the biggest challenges that IoT network providers face is providing global coverage for these IoT devices. Space-based IoT solve this by connecting long-range, low-power, low-bandwidth devices with a constellation of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) microsatellites. These satellite networks typically use store-and-forward communications, where a device uplinks cached data to a passing satellite which is stored on-board until the satellite comes in range of a Ground Station (GS). This data is then downlinked and sent to a cloud platform …

Proliferated Leo Autonomy Architecture For Capability With Scalability, Jaime Ramirez, Caleb Royer, Sanjeev Seereeram, Owen Brown, Robert Polutchko, Michael Renner

Small Satellite Conference

A next generation space architecture focused on proliferated low-Earth Orbit (p-LEO) constellations holds the promise of improved situational awareness, responsiveness, and resiliency.

A variety of proliferated space constellation efforts are underway in the National Security Space Arena, all demanding innovations in ubiquitous satellite command, control, and communications.

Whether communications, science, or defense missions, the expansion into PLEO constellations drives new demands upon autonomy, software, and communications architectures.

Previous groundbreaking autonomy work was performed on the Deep Space 1 mission, which eventually led to NASA Mars and Earth Observing-1 autonomy. In Autonomous Rendezvous, Proximity Operations, and Docking (ARPOD), Defense Advanced Research …

Real-Time Satellite Component Recognition With Yolo-V5, Trupti Mahendrakar, Ryan T. White, Markus Wilde, Brian Kish, Isaac Silver

Small Satellite Conference

With the increasing risk of collisions with space debris and the growing interest in on-orbit servicing, the ability to autonomously capture non-cooperative, tumbling target objects remains an unresolved challenge. To accomplish this task, characterizing and classifying satellite components is critical to the success of the mission. This paper focuses on using machine vision by a small satellite to perform image classification based on locating and identifying satellite components such as satellite bodies, solar panels or antennas. The classification and component detection approach is based on “You Only Look Once” (YOLO) V5, which uses Neural Networks to identify the satellite components. …

Attitude And In-Orbit Residual Magnetic Moment Estimation Of Small Satellites Using Only Magnetometer, Raunak Srivastava, Roshan Sah, Kaushik Das

Small Satellite Conference

Attitude estimation or determination is a fundamental task for satellites to remain effectively operational. This task is furthermore complicated on small satellites by the limited space and computational power available on-board. This, coupled with a usually low budget, restricts small satellites from using high precision sensors for its especially important task of attitude estimation. On top of this, small satellites, on account of their size and weight, are comparatively more sensitive to environmental or orbital disturbances as compared to their larger counterparts. Magnetic disturbance forms the major contributor to orbital disturbances on small satellites in Lower Earth Orbits (LEO). This …

Towards Modular Attitude Determination And Control System (Adcs), Ran Qedar, Saish Sridharan, Ignaty Romanov-Chernigovksy, David Messmann, Jonis Kiesbye, James Barrington-Brown

Small Satellite Conference

Objectives:

Modular ADCS based on CubeSat flight experience, space heritage hardware and rad hard components for small satellites

Project goal:

Integration of independent modules based on electronic data sheets (EDS) configuration system

Capabilities:

• Attitude determination and control
• Boot and self-recovery
• Plug and play interface to sensor and actuators
• Fault Detection, Isolation & Recovery (FDIR)
• Data management and storage
• External control interface

Cubesats In Support Of Astrophysics, Grbalpha And Beyond, András Pál, Norbert Werner, Masanori Ohno, László Mészáros, Jakub Řípa, M. Frajt, N. Hirade, Ján Hudec, Jakub Kapuš, M. Koleda, R. Laszlo, P. Lipovsky, H. Matake, Miroslav Šmelko, N. Uchida, B. Csák, T. Enoto, Y. Fukazawa, G. Galgóczi, K. Hirose, S. Hisadomi, Y. Ichinohe, T. Mizuno, K. Nakazawa, H. Odaka, H. Takahashi, K. Torigoe

Small Satellite Conference

Space science, including the field of astrophysics, is continuously finding innovative use cases for small satellites and CubeSat platforms. These missions support efforts in the democratisation and improved accessibility of space technologies. GRBAlpha, as one of such missions, is a 1U CubeSat carrying an experimental payload for the detection of gamma-ray bursts (GRB).

Design And Prototyping Of A Superheated Steam Electric Powered Propulsion System For Cubesats, Pablo Leslabay, Franco Scarone, Tomás Giraudy

Small Satellite Conference

A water-based ResistoJet type propulsion system is designed for its use in CubeSats larger than 6U as an orbital maneuvering system. Designed to be self-contained in 1U, its electrically powered evaporator and high-temperature superheater systems are fed by a self-pressurized liquid water tank, thus characterized by simplicity due to the lack of pumps or external pressurizing systems. Moving parts and the use of toxic materials are minimized.

The analytical and parametric models introduced allow an engineer to introduce the changes needed to adapt the propulsion system to different missions, maintaining efficiency. Steady-state thermodynamic and heat transfer analytical models are used, …

Constellation Design Of Remote Sensing Small Satellite For Infrastructure Monitoring In India, Roshan Sah, Raunak Srivastava, Kaushik Das

Small Satellite Conference

A constellation of remote sensing small satellite system has been developed for infrastructure monitoring in India by using Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Payload. The low earth orbit (LEO) constellation of the small satellites is designed in a way, which can cover the entire footprint of India. Since India lies a little above the equatorial region, the orbital parameters are adjusted in a way that inclination of 36 degrees and RAAN varies from 70-130 degrees at a height of 600 km has been considered. A total number of 4 orbital planes are designed in which each orbital plane consisting 3 small …

Mission Engineering And The Cubesat System Reference Model, David Kaslow, Alejandro Levi

Small Satellite Conference

SSWG has been investigating the applicability of MBSE for designing CubeSats since 2011.

The first phase developed a SysML model of a CubeSat and applied it to the Radio Aurora Explorer. The second phase included modeling behaviors and the third phase included carrying out trade studies.

The current phase is the development of the CubeSat System Reference Model (CSRM).

The CSRM provides the logical architecture of a CubeSat space and ground system. The CSRM logical components are reused as a starting point for a mission-specific CubeSat logical architecture followed by the development of the physical architecture during CubeSat development. The …

Passive Thermal Storage Of Small Satellites For Swap Improvements Over Thousands Of Operational Cycles, Joshua Smay, Clayton Hose, Ryan Spangler

Small Satellite Conference

Satellite manufacturers and customers continue to trend toward higher power, duty cycle-driven components (high powered amplifiers) to get the most capability out of each small/CubeSat put in orbit. The result is more waste heat to manage, requiring engineers to develop a means of transferring or storing the energy without causing a substantial increase in thermal management system mass. Phase Change Material (PCM) heat sinks are being utilized by the industry as a solution to this challenge due to their fully passive operation and ability to reduce the mass of the thermal management system. PCM heat sinks for duty cycle applications …

Quicksat/Autonomy: A Framework Of Autonomy Apis And System For Small Satellites To Support Tactical Intelligence, Surveillance, And Reconnaissance And Vehicle Health Management Functions, Andrew Santangelo

Small Satellite Conference

The QuickSAT/Autonomy is a framework of autonomy APIs and system with flight computer designed for cubesats to support Tactical Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) functions plus generic autonomy related functions such as vehicle health management. The system allows the cubesat through a range of sensors such as a hyperspectral camera to collect data, “perceive” key select information, and alert to the ground what is “sensed”, relaying only the required critical data. Operators can later download larger data sets as needed. This will allow the streamlining what is communicated to the ground in a timely manner. Communications is a critical bottleneck …

Online Small-Sat Knowledge Repositories And Modeling Tools For Risk Reduction And Enhanced Mission Success, Arthur Witulski, Brian Sierawski, Gabor Karsai, Nag Mahadevan, Robert Reed, Ronald Schrimpf, Allyson Yarbrough, Neil White, Michael Campola, Rebekah Austin, Michael Johnson, Kaitlyn Ryder, Craig Burkhard, Robbie Robertson

Small Satellite Conference

Developers of small satellites face the challenges of a short development schedule, incomplete information about parts from vendors, and limited budgets. The situation is complicated by the need to use commercial electronic parts rather than radiation hardened parts to meet performance and budget constraints. Fortunately, a number of organizations are standing up new modeling and data resources that are available for free online. Motivation for sharing models, part data, and lessons learned include shorter development times, increased mission success likelihood, and training the next generation of space professionals. The purpose of this paper is to make these resources and their …

Opensatkit - A Flight Software System Educational Platform, David Mccomas

Small Satellite Conference

OpenSatKit (OSK) provides a free educational resource originally created for spacecraft flight software (FSW) developers to adopt and use NASA’s open-source core Flight System (cFS) that has expanded to include applications for space systems curriculum, STEM educators and hobbyist. In 2015 the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) open sourced the cFS and a spacecraft dynamic simulator called 42. In the same year Ball Aerospace open sourced their COSMOS user interface for command and control of embedded systems. OSK combines these three systems into aground-flight-simulator software system.

The cFS is an open architecture allowing users to port the core Flight …

Cal Poly Cubesat Kit - A Technical Introduction To Mk I, Pauline Faure, Giovanni Guerrero, Stavros Diamantopoulos, Dave Pignatelli

Small Satellite Conference

The California Polytechnic State University’s Aerospace Engineering Department is developing a CubeSat Kit for educational, professional training, and capacity building purposes. The development of the CubeSat Kit follows phases and since its initiation in Fall 2019, eleven undergraduate students and three graduate students have been involved in the initiative. The first phase, CubeSat Kit Mk I, is planned to be completed by spring 2021. For Mk I, the Kit includes a structure, integrated payload processing module (IPPM), electrical power subsystem (EPS), and a backplane. The Kit’s Mk I structure was designed to enable additive and subtractive manufacturing. Hence, a wide …

Model-Based Engineering Education With Practical Activities Using Hepta-Sat, Takumi Sato, Taiga Zengo, Masahiko Yamazaki

Small Satellite Conference

In this study, we designed and implemented an education using CubeSat educational kit “HEPTA-Sat” to acquire Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) practically. We share the lessons learned there.

In the development of complicated systems such as CubeSat, it is difficult to manage requirements and tasks only in the mind, and omissions and inconsistencies may occur. And, in communication between members and document accumulated in the project, there is often a contradiction with the receiver, since there is implicit information which is not clarified in the background. Therefore, by describing a system in a modeling language and managing it by connecting various …

Development Of Formation Flying Cubesats And Operation Systems For The Canyval-C Mission: Launch And Lessons Learned, Geuk-Nam Kim, Sang-Young Park, Taeyang Lee, Dae-Eun Kang, Namgyu Kim, Soobin Jeon, Eunji Lee, Youngbum Song

Small Satellite Conference

The CubeSat Astronomy NASA and Yonsei using Virtual telescope ALignment for Coronagraph (CANYVAL-C) is a technology demonstration mission that shows the concept of a virtual space telescope using two CubeSats in formation flying. The final goal of the mission is to obtain several images of the solar corona during an artificial solar eclipse created by the two CubeSats, Timon (1U CubeSat) and Pumbaa (2U CubeSat). To implement this mission, two CubeSats in formation flying and a ground segment have been developed. The CubeSats were constructed mainly with commercial off the shelf components, sharing the bus architecture. The payload of each …

Heron: Demonstrating A Novel Biological Platform For Small Satellite Missions, Dylan Vogel, Avinash Mukkala, Kimberly Ren, Lorna Lan, Yong Da Li, Eric Van Velzen, Bruno Almeida, Cassandra Chanen, Adyn Miles, Ali Haydaroglu, Abdullah Gulab, Addy Bhatia, Alejandro Duque, Alireza Nickooie, Ambrose Man, Americo Barros, Amna Zulfiqar, Amy Shi, Ana Quilumbango, Andrew Uderian, Andy Xie, Arash Nourimand, Arfa Saif, Atharva Datar, Atharva Dighe, Aurora Nowicki, Avelyn Wong, Ben Kwashigah, Ben Makarchuk, Benjamin Nero, Et Al.

Small Satellite Conference

Long-duration deep space missions pose a significant health risk for both humans and their resident microorganisms. The GeneSat, PharmaSat and O/OREOS missions have previously explored biological questions regarding the effects of spaceflight on S. cerevisiase, B. subtilis, and E. coli. However, there currently exists both a knowledge and an accessibility gap in small satellite biological experiments. These payloads require precise instrumentation and complex platforms that are usually reserved for large research organizations. This makes it difficult for smaller organizations to perform biological research in low Earth orbit (LEO). To address these challenges, the University of Toronto Aerospace Team …

An Overview Of The Birds-4 Satellite Project And The First Satellite Of Paraguay, Adolfo Javier Jara Cespedes, Izrael Zenar Casople Bautista, George Maeda, Sankyun Kim, Hirokazu Masui, Takashi Yamauchi, Mengu Cho

Small Satellite Conference

The Joint Global Multi-National Birds or BIRDS program, is a multinational small satellite project led by Kyushu Institute of Technology (Japan). The BIRDS program gives to non-space faring nations the opportunity to design, integrate, build, test, launch, and operate their country’s first satellite. This paper focuses on BIRDS-4, a constellation of three 1U CubeSats belonging to Paraguay (GuaraniSat-1: Paraguay’s first satellite), Philippines (Maya-2), and Japan (Tsuru). BIRDS-4 members are graduate students enrolled in Space Engineering International Course (SEIC) at Kyushu Institute of Technology. This constellation will execute nine missions such as Earth Imaging, Total Ionization Dose measurements, evaluation of Perovskite …

Mata-Rl: Continuous Reaction Wheel Attitude Control Using The Mata Simulation Software And Reinforcement Learning, Vanessa Tan, John Leur Labrador, Marc Caesar Talampas

Small Satellite Conference

As earth observation satellites, Diwata microsatellites need to have a high degree of target pointing accuracy. Additionally, being in low orbit, they could experience strong external disturbances. Current methods for attitude control have proven to be effective. However, they are prone to changes in control and mass parameters. In this paper, we explore using Deep Reinforcement Learning (RL) for attitude control. This paper also leverages on Diwata’s simulator, MATA: Mission, Attitude, and Telemetry Analysis (MATA) software, in training the RL agent. We implemented two RL algorithms: Proximal Policy Optimization (PPO) and Soft Actor-Critic (SAC). We then simulated different scenarios and …

Integration, Launch, And First Results From Ideassat/Inspiresat-2 - A 3u Cubesat For Ionospheric Physics And Multi-National Capacity Building, Loren C. Chang, Chi-Kuang Chao, Yi-Chung Chiu, Tzu-Ya Tai, Kai-Lun Cheng, Hsin-Tzu Liu, Rong Tsai-Lin, Guan-Po Chiu, Kai-Jye Hou, Pin-An Lin, Ruo-Yu Wang, Yu-Shun Wang, Glen Franco Gacal, Sittinat Denduonghatai, Tsai-Ru Yu, Rafael Yuwei Li, Jann-Yenq Liu, Randson Huang, Amal Chandran, Kashyapa Bramha Naren Athreyas, Priyadarshan Hari, Joji John Varghese, Mustapha Meftah, Rick Kohnert, Wengang Zheng

Small Satellite Conference

The Ionospheric Dynamics and Attitude Subsystem Satellite (IDEASSat) is a 3U CubeSat carrying a Compact Ionospheric Probe (CIP) to detect ionospheric irregularities that can impact the usability and accuracy of global satellite navigation systems (GNSS), as well as satellite and terrestrial over the horizon communications. The spacecraft was developed by National Central University (NCU) in Taiwan, with additional development and operational support from partners in the International Satellite Program in Science and Education (INSPIRE) consortium. The spacecraft system needed to accommodate these mission objectives required three axis attitude control, dual band communications capable of supporting both tracking, telemetry and command …

Upmsat-2 Micro-Satellite: In-Orbit Technological Demonstration For Education And Science, Elena Roibás-Millán, Javier Pérez-Álvarez, Santiago Pindado, Javier Cubas, Ángel Sanz-Andrés, Sebastián Franchini, Isabel Perez-Grande, Gustavo Alonso, Andrés García-Pérez, Marcos Chimeno-Manguan, Ignacio Torralbo, Juan Zamorano, Juan Antonio De La Puente, Jorge Garrido, Alejandro Alonso, Alejandro Gómez-San Juan, Javier Piqueras, Lilian Peinado, Arturo González-Llana, José Miguel Álvarez Romero, Juan Bermejo

Small Satellite Conference

The UPMSat-2 micro-satellite was launched on September the 3rd 2020 at 01:51:10 UTC from Kourou spaceport in French Guyana. The VV16 Vega Flight has been the first low Earth orbit rideshare commercial flight with a total of 53 satellites (7 of them micro-satellites) to be released by the launch vehicle, arranged in the modular SSMS (Small Spacecraft Mission Service) dispenser. UPMSat-2 is an educational, scientific and in-orbit technological demonstration microsatellite project led by the IDR/UPM research institute from Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM), Spain. This mission can be considered as a logical extension of the IDR/UPM Institute activities focused on …

Lessons Learned From The Development And Flight Of The First Miniature Tethered Electrodynamics Experiment (Mitee-1), George Li, Liam Spence, Mitchel Miller, Maya Pandya, Nick Stankey, Allison Hancock, Raymond Lu, Christopher Park, Anish Rajesh, Alex Beloiu, Brian Gilchrist

Small Satellite Conference

The Miniature Tether Electrodynamics Experiment (MiTEE) CubeSat team is a technological advancement project intended to evaluate technology for Electrodynamic Tether (EDT) propulsion on very small pico- and femto-satellite platforms. MiTEE is demonstrating this through a series of missions starting with MiTEE-1, a 3U CubeSat designed to characterize the electron current collection behavior of a biased, simulated picosat mounted at the end of a 1-meter deployable boom. In addition, a miniaturized Langmuir probe electronics board was flown to characterize the ambient plasma environment. MiTEE-1 was launched successfully with Virgin Orbit’s Launch Demo 2 flight on NASA’s 20th Educational Launch of Nanosatellites …