Digital Commons Network^™

Software-Driven Multi-Strip Imaging Mission Planning And Attitude Control For An Agile 6u Earth Observation Cubesat, Fatimah Alzedany, Atif Mahmood

Small Satellite Conference

Mission Opportunity:

A 20-km native swath limits the ground coverage achievable by a nadir-pointing 6U CubeSat within a single orbital pass.

SOFTWARE, NOT NEW HARDWARE

Use access-window analysis and time-tagged attitude commands to exploit spacecraft agility without modifying the payload.

The Effects Of Space On Pharmacology And Traditional Medicine: A Review Of Current Literature And Its Potential Impacts On Space Therapeutics, Pratyush Majumdar

Small Satellite Conference

Astronauts in space commonly take medicine for sleep disorders, muscle aches, and other miscellaneous conditions. These medications are taken under the assumption that they will work in space comparable to their effect on Earth, but mounting evidence is emerging to demonstrate that this is not the case. Using the principles of pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, there are many physiological changes that alter how a drug is processed, changing their therapeutic effect. As mission times get longer, there is a heavier need to understand these changes and compensate for them in order to keep astronauts safe.

Thermal Analysis Of Small Satellites, Devansh Patel

Small Satellite Conference

Accurate thermal modeling is essential to spacecraft design, ensuring components remain within operational temperatures throughout orbit. This study develops and validates thermal models of increasing complexity to gain practical experience in spacecraft thermal analysis.

The GRIFEX mission is a 3U CubeSat launched in a 634 km circular polar orbit by the Michigan Exploration Laboratory (MXL). The CubeSat observed both 90° and 0° beta angle orbits during its mission, making it optimal for comparing thermal analysis results for small satellites in low Earth orbit.

Tracking Assembly For The Pulse-A Optical Ground Station, Rodrigo Spinola E Castro, Ashley Ashiku, Elizabeth Rosario, Juan Ignacio Prieto Asbun, Robert Pitu, Tian Zhong

Small Satellite Conference

PULSE-A is the University of Chicago’s student-led 3U CubeSat mission to demonstrate a space-to-ground optical downlink at a data rate of 1 to 10 Mbps using circular polarization shift keying (CPolSK).

Design And Testing Of A Compact Hold-Down And Release System For A Formation Flying Micro Satellite; Seirios, Takahiro Takano, Yoshihisa Shimada, Takahiro Yamazaki, Masaki Ito, Itsuki Fujiwara, Satoshi Ikari, Shinichi Nakasuka

Small Satellite Conference

SEIRIOS(Space Experiment of IR Interferometric Observation Satellites)

• Demonstrates accurate formation flying (FF) technology with three microsatellites (two10 kg-class and one 60 kg-class)

Hold-Down and Release System (HDRS)

1. Retain the Deputy-Sats on the Chief -Sat during the launch.
2. Enable Interferometric observation in the docking configuration with no structural deformation.
3. Enable separation of the Deputy-Sats in orbit.
4. Avoid collision during separation

Launch Load Condition(Tentative)

The response amplification factor within the Chief-Sat was empirically set as below.

Development Of A Digital Electronic Framework To Manage High Power Systems In Small Satellite Missions, Mariel Serra, Rami Kandela, Bryan Johnston-Lemke, Robert E. Zee

Small Satellite Conference

• As small spacecraft payloads increase in complexity, they introduce the need for higher capacity and reliable power systems.
• The use of radiation tested automotive-grade components offer low-costs, however these parts are less suited to increased power demands, exhibiting signs of on-orbit latch-up.
• A re-design of a Modular Power System’s digital framework is proposed to support more spacecraft loads with minimal computational stress on the electronic processing units.

History Of Aggiesat6: An Undergraduate Mission From Concept To Operations, Garrett M. Stevenson, John F. Connolly

Small Satellite Conference

AggieSat Laboratory (AGSL) is a student-run space vehicle development organization that trains students in systems engineering through hands-on experience in the design, building, testing, and operation of space and space-related systems.

AGSL currently supports 107 members, all but three (3) of which are undergraduates, across eight (8) projects, including an underclassmen shadowing program.

AGSL supports the initiative and learning capabilities of undergraduate members through peer mentorship and the institutionalization of knowledge across its projects to achieve success through a variety of projects.

Integrated Optical/Body-Dynamics Simulations For Pointing, Acquisition And Tracking For The Pulse-A Mission, Juan Ignacio Prieto Asbun, Elizabeth Rosario, Jiayang Xu, Catherine Todd, Robert Pitu, Tian Zhong

Small Satellite Conference

PULSE-A is the University of Chicago’s student-led 3U CubeSat mission to demonstrate a space-to-ground optical downlink at a data rate of 1 to 10 Mbps using circular polarization shift keying (CPolSK).

To avoid costly and ineffective hardware-in-the-loop simulations, we instead present software-in-the-loop simulations designed to qualify our optical and PAT systems. This allows for simulations of the coupled optical systems that include closed-loop corrections and body pointing errors.

Iterative Determination Of Pressures In The Refueling Process Of The Pw-Sat3 Satellite, Jakub Paziewski, Michał Niewiadomski, Paweł Senda, Jakub Dresler, Mikołaj Kmin, Kacper Kordek

Small Satellite Conference

PW-Sat3 is a 3U CubeSat being developed by the Students’ Space Association at the Warsaw University of Technology. It is a third satellite in the PW-Sat series, following PW-Sat with a deorbitation tail and PW-Sat2 with a deorbitation sail. PW Sat3 will be equipped with a warm-gas propulsion system and an authorial AOCS written by the students.

The final goal is to perform orbital decay by lowering the perigee. Secondary goals include taking pictures of the planet and evaluating innovative Earth horizon sensors using the satellite as a platform for amateur radio experiments.

Operationalizing On-Orbit Repair: A Conops For Gator Arms Small Satellite Servicing, Anais Mera-Sarnelli, Aimee Dew, Daniel Radu, Chrispher Petersen, Michael Generale

Small Satellite Conference

Mission Definition

• GATOR Arms (Galactic Autonomous Twin Operational Robotic Arms) was designed to provide in-space servicing to small satellites in LEO.
• Small satellites currently have limited servicing options, thus localized component failures can prematurely end otherwise viable missions.
• This poster develops the CONOPS for an operational servicing mission involving on-orbit inspection, repair, refurbishment, reconfiguration, reboost, or repurposing of client satellites for extended missions.
• The representative servicing task is the recovery and reconfiguration of an external deployable such as a solar panel, antenna, or radiator flap.
• GATOR Arms targets a 2-4 year servicing life, end-of-life disposal within 5 years of mission …

Sailing To The Stars Iss Experiment: Results And Conclusions From Light Sail Deployments In Microgravity, Verena Padres, Parishee Bajaj, Venkata Chalamalasetty, Claire Kim, Joshua Umansky-Castro, Dionna Parina, Gabriella Elcsics-Gonzalez, Cameron Goddard, Ethan Francolla, Mason Peck, Andrew Filo, Alex Burke, Olivia Gámez Holzhaus, Heath Mills, Christopher Kelly

Small Satellite Conference

Sailing to the Stars is a mission to test the deployment of free-flying light sails on the International Space Station (ISS). The objective is to understand how different deployer designs affect the stability of both the CubeSat Deployer and the light sail during and after the deployment event. Data from the IMU onboard the deployer and video footage from wall-mounted cameras are used to analyze these dynamics. The findings shall inform the design of future missions that employ this free-flying ChipSat-sail architecture.

The hardware launched with Crew-11 on August 1^st, 2025. Nicole Ayers conducted the experiment on August …

Using Ai And Photometry To Locate And Characterize Exoplanets For Small Satellites, Ella Vosburg, Herb Hess, Christine Page

Small Satellite Conference

This poster reports a theoretical design of a spectrometer and deformable mirrors on a CubeSat, coding for preprocessing of data, and how an AI model will be used in postprocessing with Jupiter and its moons as a test case.

Searching for and characterizing exoplanets has driven the design and execution of many observational space missions, as demonstrated by several well-known large telescopes. However, some challenges to expanding our knowledge of the universe remain, including competitive observation times and high cost. This leads to the incumbent methods of using archival transit and spectroscopic data.

Smaller satellites have an advantage on these …

Generalized Attitude Control For Small Spacecraft, Patrick Mckeen, Niclas Scheuer, Kerri Cahoy

Small Satellite Conference

Published controllers are derived for one actuator set, pointing goal, orbit, and disturbance model. Porting one means reproducing the paper, validating the implementation, then changing hardware and mission assumptions together.

Concept Of Operation Logic And Implementation Expectations For Multimode Propulsion Technology Demonstration Missions, Logan Thompson, Michael Harrigan, Theresa Sandborn, Victoria Coverstone, Joshua L. Rovey

Small Satellite Conference

Traditional single-mode propulsion systems are typically optimized for either high-thrust, short-duration maneuvers (chemical propulsion) or high-efficiency, low-thrust operations (electric propulsion). For CubeSats, which are limited by mass, volume, power, and system complexity, carrying separate propulsion systems for each mission phase is often impractical. Multimode propulsion systems overcome this limitation by combining chemical and electric propulsion within a shared architecture, allowing a single spacecraft to perform both rapid maneuvers and efficient long-duration orbit maintenance.

Demonstrating a multimode propulsion system requires more than operating two propulsion modes on the same spacecraft. Shared propellant, feed systems, thermal interactions, power usage, and transitions …

Ice Giant Watch Dog: Cubesat Concept To Monitor Weather On Neptune, Isabela Huckabee, Don Banfield, Nikole Lewis, Elijah Mullens, Abby Boehm

Small Satellite Conference

Why Neptune?

Neptune hosts one of the most dynamic weather systems in the solar system, yet it hasn't been closely observed since the Voyager-2 flyby. Existing observing programs [1,2] are too infrequent to capture the day-to-week timescales on which storms and clouds evolve, but a dedicated CubeSat could fill this gap.

The current project has two goals:

1. Explore the photometric precisions achievable by a CubeSat platform
2. Determine whether the presence of clouds will be detectable by a CubeSat platform

Mean Platelet Volume As A Marker Of Disease Severity In Hospitalized Children With Acute Bronchiolitis., Kedar Tilak, Trisha Sunderajan, Lewis Krata

Manuscripts, Articles, Book Chapters and Other Papers

Bronchiolitis is one of the most common lower respiratory tract infections affecting children less than two years of age and is a leading cause of hospitalization. Mean platelet volume (MPV), a readily available component of the complete blood count, has been investigated as an inflammatory biomarker in various conditions. Our present study evaluated the association between MPV values and the severity of acute bronchiolitis in hospitalized children.    Objective: The aim of this study was to determine the association between MPV, severity of respiratory distress, and need for oxygen support in hospitalized children under two years of age with acute bronchiolitis. …

Correlative In Situ Nonlinear Optical Characteriztion Of Plasmonic Colloidal Nanoparticle Growth Dynamics, Stena C. Peterson

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Colloidal noble metal nanoparticles are of extreme interest as nanomaterials and for the wide variety of their possible applications in nanomedicine. The unique linear and nonlinear optical processes associated with these nanomaterials can be studied using a variety of spectroscopic techniques including extinction, second harmonic generation (SHG), and two-photon fluorescence (TPF) spectroscopy. In order to better understand and optimize these nanomaterials for their desired applications, it is important to investigate the growth and photophysical dynamics associated with gold nanoparticles, silver-gold core-shell (Ag-Au CS) nanoparticles, and gold-silver-gold core-shell-shell (Au-Ag-Au CSS) nanoparticles in addition to how their size, surface morphology, composition. and …

Cognitive Warfare And The Brain-As-Battlespace: Neuroscience, Artificial Intelligence, And The Emerging Domain Of Neurostrategic Competition, James Giordano, Robert Schmidle

Strategic Insights

The human brain is becoming a consequential arena of strategic competition. This commentary looks at how cognitive warfare draws on the neural processes underlying perception, emotion, trust, identity, judgment, and decision-making to influence individual and collective behavior. It describes how existing beliefs, biases, social affiliations, and information environments shape the way people interpret and respond to competing narratives, making natural cognitive processes potential targets for exploitation. Dr. Giordano and Dr. Schmidle trace how advances in neuroscience, artificial intelligence, big-data analytics, neurotechnology, and behavioral modeling are expanding the ability to assess and potentially influence cognition. Particular attention is given to population …

Staff Education To Improve Healthcare Staff Knowledge Of An Electronic Scheduling System In An Intensive Outpatient Program (Iop), Catherine Kinyili

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This Doctor of Nursing Practice staff education project aimed to improve staff knowledge of the newly implemented electronic scheduling and booking kiosk system. A transition from a paper-based to an electronic scheduling system led to reduced staff efficiency, communication challenges, scheduling errors, and delays in patient care. An evaluation identified inconsistent staff knowledge of the newly implemented electronic scheduling system. The practice-focused question for the project was: Among healthcare staff in an intensive outpatient program, how does a one-time structured education and training session affect staff knowledge of a new electronic scheduling system? The purpose of this project was to …

Strategies For Recruiting Skilled Field Accountants, Gale James

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The inability of accounting leaders to recruit skilled accountants can negatively affect a business's profitability. Chief financial officers and accounting leaders who struggle to recruit accountants are at risk of business instability due to a shortage of skilled applicants. The purpose of this qualitative pragmatic inquiry was to explore successful strategies accounting firm leaders used to recruit skilled accountants in North Carolina. This research project was grounded in transformational leadership framework and the decision field theory. The participants in this study consisted of five chief financial officers working at accounting firms who were able to recruit accountants. Data were collected …

Registered Nurses’ Perceptions Of Relational Service Behaviors In Nursing Practice, Dadakpoye Tina Johnson

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Nurses play a central role in shaping patient experiences through clinical care and relational service behaviors. However, little is known about registered nurses’ perceptions and experiences of relational service behaviors in contemporary health care settings. The purpose of this interpretive description qualitative study was to explore registered nurses’ perceptions and experiences of relational service behaviors and their role in promoting patient-centered care. Herzberg’s two-factor theory provided the conceptual framework for examining how intrinsic motivators and extrinsic workplace factors influence relational engagement. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 11 registered nurses from diverse clinical practice settings. Interview data were analyzed using Braun …

Meaning Of Mentoring For Puerto Rican Diaspora Professionals Seeking Career Advancement, Coralys M. Cedó Negrón

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Hispanic/Latino professionals remain underrepresented in senior leadership positions across industries in the United States. Organizational leaders need to understand this concern as a critical indicator of factors that may shape leadership development and career advancement among underrepresented professionals. Grounded in the mentoring model, the purpose of this qualitative interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) study was to understand the meaning of mentoring for Puerto Rican diaspora professionals seeking career advancement in the United States. The participants comprised 10 Puerto Rican professionals living and working in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area who had participated in formal or informal mentoring relationships. Data were collected …

India's New Urban Development Regime And The Mirage Of Inclusion: The Urban Challenge Fund And City Economic Regions, Mathew Idiculla

Journal of Law and Public Policy

This paper examines two recent additions to India’s urban development paradigm—the Urban Challenge Fund (UCF) and City Economic Regions (CERs). The Union Budget 2025–26 introduced the UCF, with a ₹1 lakh crore corpus to position cities as growth hubs, followed by CER, offering seven city clusters ₹5,000 crore each over five years through a reform and results-based ‘challenge mode’ financing mechanism. This paper examines the policy frameworks of the UCF and CER and evaluates how they fit into broader trends in India’s urban development policy and engage with questions of social and democratic inclusion. It traces UCF and CER against …

Predictive Validity Of Basc-3 Anxiety And Working Memory Scores For Clinically Significant Test Anxiety: Including Case-Level Examination Of Misclassified Profiles, Des'tiana Williams, Luis E. Aguerrevere, Nina Harness

Archives of Assessment Psychology

High school and college students can struggle with test anxiety, which may result in test scores below the capacity of the student. Previous literature suggests that test anxiety is related to general anxiety and limited working memory (WM), yet the extent to which these factors predict test anxiety in commonly used clinical psychoeducational assessments has not been thoroughly examined. In this study, we examined how well scores on the Behavior Assessment System for Children- 3rd edition (BASC-3) Self-Report Anxiety scale and Working Memory Index (WMI) on the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale – Fourth Edition (WAIS-IV), Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children …

Design Improvement And Performance Demonstration Of A Six-Degree-Of-Freedom Thrust Measurement System For High-Precision Formation Flying Missions, Daigo Takasaki, Isamu Moriai, Ten Arai, Kenshin Yamakawa, Keisuke Yorita, Hiroyuki Koizumi, Kimiya Komurasaki

Small Satellite Conference

A six-degree-of-freedom (6-DoF) elastic pendulum thrust stand has been developed for comprehensive measurement of thrust and torque generated by micro-propulsion systems for future formation flying missions. This paper presents ongoing design improvements to the thrust stand, including the introduction of laser-scale displacement sensors and a supported mass design analysis. The analysis considered suspension spring stiffness, spring extension, and vacuum-chamber dimensional constraints. The results indicate that the proposed sensor configuration provides sufficient measurement resolution throughout the investigated design space, while the primary design constraints arise from suspension spring extension and equilibrium spring length. The analysis also provides design guidelines for supporting …

Design And Validation Of A Modular Cubesat Framework For In-Space Assembly, Michael Kuhl, Jonah Goldstein, Kerri Cahoy

Small Satellite Conference

On-orbit assembly enables modular, adaptable satellite architectures that bypass traditional launch volume and deployment response-time constraints. The Orbital Locker (ORLO) project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology explores this shift in space operations with a prototype-scale demonstration. Standardized satellite sub-U modules are stored within a free-flying mothercraft and assembled on demand by an onboard Cartesian gantry robot, which electrically and mechanically mates the modules into complete 1U and 2U CubeSats as a prototype-scale demonstration. Once assembled, the CubeSat is electrically verified and deployed from the mothercraft into its target orbit.

The ORLO prototype integrates a locker frame, Cartesian gantry robot, …

Design Of A Passive Magnetic Bearing Reaction Wheel For Smallsats And Its Micro-Vibration Performance, Mante Baekeland, Konstantinos Gryllias, Dirk Vandepitte, Cedric Cuypers, Niel Deckers, Tjorven Delabie, René Seiler

Small Satellite Conference

Reaction wheels are a primary source of micro-vibrations aboard satellite platforms, limiting the fine-pointing capability of spacecraft. This paper presents a novel passive magnetic bearing reaction wheel featuring a magnetic–mechanical suspension to reduce operational vibration emissions compared with conventional ball bearing systems. The proposed suspension architecture combines radial permanent magnetic bearings with an axial single-point-contact ball pivot bearing, resulting in a compact, fully passive solution tailored for the SmallSat market. To demonstrate the feasibility of the concept, a hardware prototype was manufactured and tested. Stable operation is achieved across the full operational range up to 4800 rpm. The experimental campaign …

Development Of 4.5 M2 Two-Layer Textile Deployable C-Band Reflectarray Antennas For 100 Kg Satellites, Takuma Komaba, Kodai Suzuki, Kosei Kikuchi, Sonoka Kawashima, Takashi Tomura, Hiraku Sakamoto, Shunsuke Inagaki, Tomoya Takeuchi, Toshiyuki Takahashi

Small Satellite Conference

This paper presents the structural development, fabrication, and broadband design of a 5.8 GHz two-layer textile deployable reflectarray antenna for small satellite applications. Conductive patterns are directly formed on woven textile membranes using printing and plating technologies, enabling the textile surface to function as reflectarray elements while maintaining high stowage efficiency and low mass. For the structural design, an updated configuration incorporating crossbars and multiple catenary segments is proposed to improve robustness against fabrication imperfections and reduce boom loads. A full-scale 4.5 m² prototype is fabricated and successfully deployed, achieving a root-mean-square (RMS) surface error of 0.7 mm under …

Analysis Of Satellite Drag, Orbit Tracking, And Associated Operational Impacts In Very Low Earth Orbit (Vleo), Angela Crews, Adrian Bryant, Nicholas Ratajczyk, Alec Yenawine, Conor Benson, Chris Roseman, Sara Swenson, Greg Furlich, Rick Marcusen, Sierra Flynn, Chris Pankratz, Scott Palo, Iain Boyd, Marcin Pilinski

Small Satellite Conference

Large constellations of SmallSats in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) are now delivering critical capabilities for missions in Earth observation, navigation, and communications. Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO), defined here as below 400 km altitude, is emerging as a new frontier for SmallSat constellations due to its unique advantages. VLEO offers improved spatial resolution for Earth observations, reduced latency, increased signal power, and a naturally self-cleaning orbital environment. However, operating spacecraft in VLEO is non-trivial as the spacecraft must overcome the residual atmosphere at these altitudes and the resulting increase in aerodynamic drag and atomic oxygen fluence. As interest grows in …

Development, Verification And Operations Of The Technology Demonstration Payloads On The Source-2 Education Mission At The University Of Stuttgart, Marlin Kanzow, Manfred Ehresmann, Daniel Galla, Sabine Klinkner, Aaron Schmidt, Max Bode, Saulius Juodkazis

Small Satellite Conference

The Stuttgart Operated University Research Cubesat for Evaluation and Education 2 (SOURCE-2) mission serves as a student-led hands-on education project at the University of Stuttgart. Developed jointly by the Institute of Space Systems (IRS), and the Student Small Satellite Association (KSat e.V.) at the University of Stuttgart, the mission enables students to apply theoretical knowledge within an interdisciplinary 6U+ CubeSat project while simultaneously serving as a technology demonstration platform for sustainable space technologies. The payload suite targets future On-Orbit Servicing (OOS), Active Debris Removal (ADR), and next-generation small satellite missions. This paper presents the development, verification strategy, and planned in-orbit …