Digital Commons Network^™

Extension Of Cloud Computing To Small Satellites, Kathryn O'Donnell, Meghan Weber, Joy Fasnacht, Jeff Maynard, Margaret Cote, Shayn Hawthorne

Small Satellite Conference

Time-to-insight is a critical measure in a number of satellite mission applications: detection and warning of fast-moving events like fires and floods, or identification and tracking of satellites or missiles, for example. Current data flows delay the time-to-insight on the order of minutes or hours, as all collected data must be downlinked in one or more contact windows, then transited over terrestrial networks to the location of the analytic software. Additionally, mission applications on spacecraft are often static: built prior to launch, they cannot rapidly adapt to changing needs based on these insights.

To reduce time-to-insight and provide a dynamic …

A Decision Framework For Allocation Of Constellation-Scale Mission Compute Functionality To Ground And Edge Computing, Jaime Ramirez, Caleb Royer, Brian Free, Owen Brown, Robert Polutchko

Small Satellite Conference

This paper explores constellation-scale architectural trades, highlights dominant factors, and presents a decision framework for migrating or sharing mission compute functionality between ground and space segments. Over recent decades, sophisticated logic has been developed for scheduling and tasking of space assets, as well as processing and exploitation of satellite data, and this software has been traditionally hosted in ground computing. Current efforts exist to migrate this software to ground cloud-based services. The option and motivation to host some of this logic “at the edge” within the space segment has arisen as space assets are proliferated, are interlinked via transport networks, …

Lessons Learned On Building And Operating Software Defined Cubesat For Scalable Satellites, Minsik Lee, Naeem Altaf, Hanna Sohn

Small Satellite Conference

Software Defined CubeSats are small and low-cost satellites that utilize software-based technologies for their operations and functionalities. While traditional hardware based CubeSats in large-scale systems have limitations for scalability due to their fixed environments, Software Defined CubeSats offer many advantages such as flexibility, scalability, cost-effectiveness, reliability, and rapid deployments.

IBM Endurance CubeSat is a Software Defined CubeSat that aims to pave the way for future space missions. On May 25th, 2022, IBM Endurance CubeSat launched successfully in Florida, USA, and now it provides CubeSat as a Service to users who need to conduct space missions or experiments. The CubeSat uses …

Evaluating Network Performance Of Containerized Test Framework For Distributed Space Systems, Walter Vaughan, Alan George, Brian Kempa, Daniel Cellucci, Nicholas Cramer

Small Satellite Conference

Distributed space systems are a mission architecture consisting of multiple spacecraft as a cohesive system which provide multipoint sampling, increased mission coverage, or improved sample resolution, while reducing mission risk through redundancy. To fully realize the potential of these systems, eventually scaling to hundreds or thousands of spacecraft, distributed space systems need to be operated as a single entity, which will enable a variety of novel scientific space missions. The Distributed Spacecraft Autonomy (DSA) project is a software project which aims to mature the technology needed for those systems, namely autonomous decision-making and swarm networking. The DSA project leverages a …

Software-Enabled Smallsat Autonomy: Discussion With Examples, Timothy Woodbury, Austin Probe, Robert Effinger, John Mcgreevy, David Herceg, Matthew Ruschmann, Brett Carver, Timothy Esposito, Graham Bryan

Small Satellite Conference

Smallsat missions using cooperating constellations offer significant benefits compared to traditional space missions. These benefits include lower unit costs, better robustness to failures, and the ability to collect data in a distributed fashion. Significant commercial smallsat missions are active in low Earth orbit, and spacecraft operators have expressed interest in smallsat constellations operating both at higher altitudes and in proximity operations missions. Autonomy plays a significant role in extending smallsat missions to these more challenging domains. Autonomy in a broad sense refers to a spacecraft's or constellation's ability to operate independently of ground systems, and affects every part of a …

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 …

How Skywatch Uses Serverless Cloud Computing To Aggregate Eo Data For The Masses, Roland Sing

Small Satellite Conference

Problem

• Petabytes of data to process and distribute
• Pent up demand, bottlenecked by immature industry distribution vehicles and antiquated pricing structures

Goals

• no humans in the loop
• easy consumption of data by beginners and experts alike
• machine to machine focus
• low cost to purchase data
• low cost to operate
• timely processing and delivery (minutes not days)

Mata-Cloud: A Cloud Detection And Dynamic Attitude Correction Evaluation Software, Vanessa Tan, Julie Ann Banatao, John Leur Labrador, Lia Cristina Mabaquiao, Floyd Ferrant Fortes, Marc Caesar Talampas

Small Satellite Conference

With the increasing demand for high-resolution images from earth observation satellites, there is a need to optimize the usability of the images being downloaded in the ground stations. Most captured satellite images are not usable for certain applications due to high cloud cover percentage. To address this problem, this research demonstrates a cloud detection and dynamic attitude correction evaluation software. This software explores two key experiments. First is evaluating different image processing and machine learning-based approaches to detect cloud cover. The cloud detection algorithms were evaluated based on their accuracy, latency, and memory consumption. The second is exploring dynamic attitude …

A New Gigabit Software Modem And Its Cloud Deployment: Concept And Capabilities, Tomislav Nakić-Alfirević

Small Satellite Conference

Software Modem Architecture

Receivers typically have 3 components: a digitizer to digitize the signal, a digital signal processor to demodulate and decode it and a front-end processor to handle frame and packet level processing.

The digitizer receives analogue input, so it has to be a hardware device. Blink implements everything else as high-performance software, making it extremely quick to extend and customise for new missions, as well as cost-competitive. In addition, all 3 components are completely independent an can work together with third party digitizers or modems.

This is only possible because Blink is the fastest software receiver in the …

Low-Power Boards Enabling Ml-Based Approaches To Fdir In Space-Based Applications, James Murphy, John E. Ward, Brian Mac Namee

Small Satellite Conference

Modern satellite complexity is increasing, thus requiring bespoke and expensive on-board solutions to provide a Failure Detection, Isolation and Recovery (FDIR) function. Although FDIR is vital in ensuring the safety, autonomy, and availability of satellite systems in flight, there is a clear need in the space industry for a more adaptable, scalable, and cost-effective solution. This paper explores the current state of the art for Machine Learning error detection and prognostic algorithms utilized by both the space sector and the commercial sector. Although work has previously been done in the commercial sector on error detection and prognostics, most commercial applications …

A Prototype Virginia Ground Station Network, Zach Leffke, Jonathon Black, Kevin Shinpaugh, Ian Harnett, Bryce Clegg, Nick Angle, Chris Goyne, Connor Segal, William Trace' Lacour, Mike Mcpherson, Dimitrie Popescu, Samuel Jensen, Jason Harris, Mary Sandy, Mike Miller

Small Satellite Conference

This paper provides a detailed technical description of a prototype ground station network, the Virginia Ground Station Network (VGSN), developed for the Virginia Cubesat Constellation (VCC) mission. Virginia Tech (VT), University of Virginia (UVA), and Old Dominion University (ODU) have each constructed ground stations to communicate with their respective VCC spacecraft. Initially, each university was responsible for commanding its own spacecraft via its own ground station. As the mission progressed, it was decided to network the ground stations and operations centers together to provide backup communications capability for the overall mission. The NASA Wallops Flight Facility (WFF) UHF smallsat ground …

Expanding The Capability Of Satellite Operations Using A Global Federated Ground Station Network, Matthew J. Szczerba, Justin H. Schachter, Kaylee E. Bell, Michael E. Wilson, James W. Cutler

Small Satellite Conference

Small-scale spaceflight programs such as those found at universities and start-up companies may operate satellites from a single ground station. This station’s location may not be optimal for radio communications, and a single station limits the contact time available to conduct operations. The idea of a global federated ground station network (FGN) has been theorized in the past, and with today’s wide-spread internet connectivity it is now possible for such a network to exist. One example of an FGN that is functioning today is an open-source project called SatNOGS. The Michigan eXploration Laboratory (MXL) at the University of Michigan has …

Amazon Web Services (Aws) Cloud Platform For Satellite Data Processing, Richard Baker, Peter Macharrie, Hieu Phung, Jonathan Hansford, Jakku Reddy, Stephen Causey, John Sobanski, Steven Walsh, Ronald Niemann, Daniel Beall

Small Satellite Conference

As part of NOAA’s Environmental Satellite Processing and Distribution System (ESPDS) program, Solers created a cloud platform for satellite data management and processing. It consists of Enterprise Data Management (EDM) and Enterprise Product Generation (EPG) services, hosted in an Amazon Web Services (AWS) cloud environment, leveraging AWS cloud services and existing NOAA product generation algorithms. While this cloud platform was developed in the context of NOAA/NESDIS satellite data management and processing requirements, it also has tremendous applicability and cost effectiveness for small satellite data management and processing needs. An attractive method for ingesting data from small satellites is the AWS …

Lasp Smallsat Science Data Services, Alexandria Ware, James Craft, Thomas Baltzer, Christopher Pankratz

Small Satellite Conference

We are developing of a set of turn-key science data services for smallsat data management, processing, and hosting. Using cloud computing resources and existing infrastructure, we can rapidly deploy a modular data system for a mission or project. A basic system includes reliable, secure data storage, an API for fast data access worldwide, and a lightweight website with information about the mission and data API documentation. Optional add-ons include the ability to deploy science processing software using Docker containers, interactive web-based data displays, and archive deliveries to NASA or other archive facilities. The use of AWS CloudFormation templates to build …

Watching The World Go By, Alex Da Silva Curiel, Nimal Navarathinam, Rachel Bird, Andrew Cawthome, Luis Gomes, Simon Prasad, Liam Sills, Martin Sweeting

Small Satellite Conference

No abstract provided.

Small Satellites Impact Global Compliance, Standards, Licensing And Data Access Technology - Build A Business Plan To Address These Impacts, Shawana Johnson, Megan Rohrer

Small Satellite Conference

The number of commercially funded earth observation satellites will have surpassed the number of those government funded, requiring Government Agencies to address their use of commercial imagery. As more players enter this New Space additional geospatial data governance and standards become increasingly important, especially as government engages the commercial geospatial industry. Changes in governance, licensing standards and compliance are occurring from the United Nations and NATO to nation states. As more small satellite owner/operators enter the NEW SPACE commercial geospatial industry they will be faced with global compliance, standards, licensing, and data access challenges and opportunities. Advances in Machine Learning …

A Near Real Time Space Based Computer Vision System For Accurate Terrain Mapping, Caleb Adams

Small Satellite Conference

No abstract provided.

Rich Data, Cheap Satellites, George Tyc, Luis Gomes, Andrew Cawthorne, Alex Da Silva Curiel, Nimal Navarthinam, Martin Sweeting

Small Satellite Conference

Earth Observation systems traditionally have followed the flagship mission approach. Surveillance missions carry large instruments, and focus on data quality and data volume to justify their investment. Earth science missions carry multiple instruments instead, and address a wide range of applications in order to justify their cost. Yet the “Big Data” value of these missions is often minimal, because the data sets cannot provide the temporal resolution *and* spatial resolution demanded by the majority of applications in trade, traffic, energy, disasters and even in providing useful information regarding slower phenomena like forestry and agriculture. Today it has become possible to …

Platforms Designed For Big Data Provisioning With Small Satellite Constellations, Shawana Johnson, Melanie Corcoran, Megan Rohrer

Small Satellite Conference

Advances in commercial and public space imaging systems, SmallSats and CubeSats; commercial cloud computing, networking, and storage; and machine learning algorithms for computer vision and predictive model are disrupting the traditional government subsidized remote sensing market that follows an imagery as sales business model. As accessibility to space increases with the decreasing cost and lifecycle of SmallSat systems development, the quantity of available remotely sensed data will also increase, and large data procurers will surpass the US government as the primary consumer. In response, the remote sensing market is transitioning to an information-as-a-service market that delivers timely, relevant, and actionable …

Flying Constellations In The Cloud, Chris Beam

Small Satellite Conference

The space industry is in the midst of technological upheaval involving the proliferation of small satellites and the commercialization of cloud computing as a service. The proliferation of small satellites is made possible by cube sat standards, normalized small satellites launch vehicles, and continued miniaturization of electronics. The small satellite revolution has created new business, science and defense based opportunities resulting in new proposals for sizeable small satellite constellations. Similarly cloud computing as a service, has made possible the advent of high performance computing platforms and the emergence of commodity virtual machine technology. Hundreds of cloud computing service providers have …

Eating Your Own Big-Data Dogfood: Exquisite Collection With Non-Exquisite Hardware, Nick Mccarthy, Daniel Cajacob, Darek Kawamoto

Small Satellite Conference

Tool sets, algorithms and technologies developed to create value from the availability of big data have potential not only to justify and reward the collection of sensor data from space but also to improve the quality of sensor data collection. The 2017 HawkEye360 Pathfinder mission will demonstrate the use of tight interactions between constrained, space-based compute platforms with sensor hardware and an approach to ground-segment data processing typical of cloud-based, Big Data analysis to maximize the performance of payload hardware on-orbit. We present specific examples related to the improvement of time- and frequency-of-arrival (TOA and FOA) estimation for AIS transmissions …

Advanced Eo System For The Japanese Small Satellite Asnaro, Shuhei Hikosaka, Tetsuo Fukunaga, Toshiaki Ogawa, Shoichiro Mihara

Small Satellite Conference

There are growing demands for the earth observation satellite system also from the newly developing countries. Inorder to meet these demands, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), is promoting ASNARO projectand the Japanese first small EO satellite system is currently under the manufacturing stage. ASNARO spacecraft,with its total mass of approx. 500kg, will observe GSD of better than 50cm and will represent unprecedented as asmall satellite. The target of ASNARO spacecraft is to achieve as good performance as large scale EO satellites, andthe ground segment will further enhance operation performances. This paper introduces the satellite operationsystem and utilization …