Digital Commons Network^™

Lessons Learned During Testing Through Commissioning Of The Joint Brazil-Us Sport Mission, Lidia Shibuya Sato, Luís Loures, Victor Costa, Rodolfo Wottrich, Ana Carolina Jeronymo, Herbi Júnior, Pedro Lyra Cabral, Renan Menezes, Mateus Oliveira, Thadeu Carvalho, Emerson Oliveira, Denis Vieira, Charles Swenson, Joseph Casas, Linda Krause, Joaquim Costa

Small Satellite Conference

SPORT is an international partnership mission between Brazil and the United States to study ionospheric space weather processes that occur at low latitudes. Operating a CubeSat on orbit is certainly one of the most exciting milestones of a CubeSat project, but it is only a part of the mission. To be able to achieve this milestone the efforts of the engineering team were focused late in the project on the integration, testing, and delivery followed by the on-orbit commissioning of the observatory. This paper details the major events and lessons learned by the SPORT team during these phases of the …

Capstone: Recovery & Operations Of A Tumbling Small Satellite In Deep Space, Hannah Umansky, Kyle Clarke, Rebecca Rogers, Austin Hannon, Jack Kelly, Tristan Latchu, Austin Williams, Brennan Bryant

Small Satellite Conference

The Cislunar Autonomous Positioning System Technology Operations and Navigation Experiment (CAPSTONE) satellite, deployed in July 2022, experienced a thruster anomaly in September 2022 during its Ballistic Lunar Transfer (BLT) into the Earth-Moon L2 Near Rectilinear Halo Orbit (NRHO). CAPSTONE's primary mission objective to achieve and maintain NRHO serves to validate the cislunar CONOPS contemplated for NASA's Lunar Gateway. Terran Orbital designed and built CAPSTONE, and serves as the operator of the on-orbit spacecraft. Advanced Space owns and operates the CAPSTONE payload and its software on behalf of NASA, as well as performs mission navigation and maneuver design.

This 12U+ lunar …

Inspiresat-1: A Year Of On-Orbit Operations, Amal Chandran, Thomas Woods, Richard Kohnert, Robert Sewell, Bennet Schwab, Spencer Boyajian, Priyadarshnam Hari, Aroshish Priyadarshan, Pratik Aher, Dhruva Datta, Anant Kandala, Loren Chang, Chi-Kuang Chao

Small Satellite Conference

INSPIRESat-1 (IS-1) was the first mission under the INternational Satellite Program In Research and Education (INSPIRE) program, a consortium of universities coming together to space science missions. IS-1 launched on February 14, 2022 at 00:30 UTC to a sun synchronous dawn-dusk orbit onboard the Indian Space Research Organization's PSLV C52 mission. The IS-1 spacecraft was primarily developed at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at the University of Colorado with significant contributions from the Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST), NCU of Taiwan and Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore. The IS-1 carries two scientific instruments: …

Click-A: Optical Communication Experiments From A Cubesat Downlink Terminal, William Kammerer, Peter Grenfell, Jacob Harburg, Nicholas Belsten, Hannah Tomio, Paul Serra, Kerri Cahoy, Tim Brothers, Michael Person, Myles Clark, Dani Coogan, John Conklin, David Mayer, Jan Stupl, John Hanson

Small Satellite Conference

The CubeSat Laser Infrared CrosslinK (CLICK) mission is a technology demonstration of low size, weight, and power (SWaP) CubeSat optical communication terminals for downlink and crosslinks. The mission is broken into two phases: CLICK-A, which consists of a downlink terminal hosted in a 3U CubeSat, and CLICK-B/C, which consists of a pair of crosslink terminals each hosted in their own 3U CubeSat. This work focuses on the CLICK-A 1.2U downlink terminal, whose goal was to establish a 10 Mbps link to a low-cost portable 28 cm optical ground station called PorTeL. The terminal communicates with M-ary pulse position modulation (PPM) …

Equuleus: Initial Operation Results Of An Artemis-1 Cubesat To The Earth—Moon Lagrange Point, Ryu Funase, Shintaro Nakajima, Yosuke Kawabata, Ryota Fuse, Hokuto Sekine, Hiroyuki Koizumi

Small Satellite Conference

EQUULEUS is a 6U CubeSat developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and the University of Tokyo, aiming to reach the Earth-Moon second Lagrange point (EML2) and perform scientific observations there. After being inserted into a lunar transfer orbit by SLS Artemis-1 on November 16, 2022, the spacecraft completed checkout operations and successfully performed a delta-V maneuver and subsequent trajectory correction maneuver. This enabled a precise lunar flyby as planned and successful insertion into the orbit toward EML2, which will take advantage of multiple lunar gravity assists and the gravity of the Sun. EQUULEUS is equipped with a water …

Operations Systems Engineering For The Lunar Flashlight Mission, Michael Hauge, E. Glenn Lightsey, Mason Starr, Shan Selvamurugan, Graham Jordan, John Cancio, Conner Awald

Small Satellite Conference

Lunar Flashlight, a 6U CubeSat developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and operated by students at the Georgia Institute of Technology (GT), was launched in December 2022 with a mission to demonstrate novel small satellite technologies, including a first-of-its-kind green monopropellant system, and to map surface water ice in permanently shadowed regions of the lunar south pole using near-infrared laser reflectometry. As operations systems engineers, the GT team has maintained, developed, and refined models of spacecraft subsystems as well as coordinated the project's approach to anomaly response and fault protection. This paper reports how analysis of flight data and …

The Radfxsat-2 Mission To Measure Seu Rates In Finfet Microelectronics, Chloe A. Champagne, Brian D. Sierawski, Rebekah A. Austin, James M. Trippe, Kevin M. Warren, Andrew L. Sternberg, Robert A. Reed, Robert A. Weller, Eric Skoog, Gerald W. Buxton Iii, W. Burns Fisher, Robert Davis, Christopher E. Thompson, Mark L. Hammond

Small Satellite Conference

The RadFxSat-2 mission was launched January 17, 2021 with Virgin Orbit's LauncherOne under the NASA ELaNa-20 initiative. RadFxSat-2 carries a radiation effects payload designed to investigate single event upsets (SEUs) in sub-65 nm commercial memories, including a FinFET-based memory. Sub-65 nm technologies have demonstrated enhanced sensitivity to low-energy protons, but current models have not considered low-energy protons as a source of SEUs. Missions utilizing the latest commercial technologies could experience a higher error rate than predicted. RadFxSat-2 was designed to assess SEU rates for FinFET SRAMs operated in low-Earth orbit (LEO), a proton-heavy environment. Details of the mission and data …

Cloaked In Shadow: The Biopolitics Of Sauron’S Middle-Hell, Journee Cotton

Online Midwinter Seminar (OMS)

This paper considers hellish aspects of The Lord of the Rings through an environmental bioethical framework focusing on the intersection of biopolitics, race, and ecology. Key figures that shall be examined include Sauron, Saruman, Uruk-hai, and the body of Middle-earth. Sauron shall be read as a Hades figure; they share numerous connections, such as their domain is hell, influence over invisibility (Hades’ cloak and Sauron’s Ring), characterization of giver of gifts, possession of dead bodies, and connection to the earth’s fertility (or lack). Sauron’s possession over dead bodies arises from the necropolitical power he incites over bodies in his sphere …

Finding Tjreverb: A Crowdsourced Effort To Find A High School Cubesat, Kristen Kucko, Zichang (Amanda) Wang, Arthur Prudius, Khoi Dinh, Pranav Vadde, Anieesh Saravanan, Lucas Ribeiro, Kiran Donnelly, Alan Hsu, Jin Kang

Small Satellite Conference

This paper documents the team's process for finding the Thomas Jefferson Research and Education Vehicle for Radio Broadcasts (TJREVERB) with the help of the Amateur Radio community. The team attempted contacting the primary Iridium radio on TJREVERB for one week after it was deployed from the International Space Station but failed. The satellite did switch to its secondary radio, a SATT 4 APRS. However, the team was inexperienced and unprepared to contact the satellite using the SATT 4 APRS. Since we do not have access to an APRS ground station, we leveraged the help of twenty amateur radio volunteers from …

On The Challenges Of Reaching Pupils With Spacetech-Related Extracurricular Activities, David Freismuth, David Wagner, Raphael Behrle, Stephan Galavics, Patrick Kappl

Small Satellite Conference

Today's rapid progress in space exploration leads to a high impact on our society. Especially young people are highly affected by this fascination. Despite this large pool of curious pupils, it remains challenging to find entry points into space and aeronautic-related careers for them. Often, these topics seem to be out of reach for most pupils. Educational programs like AstroPi (offered by ESA) or High School Aerospace Scholars (offered by NASA) target this issue. However, those projects never get into contact with actual outer space and remain mostly theoretical. The goal of the mission "SpaceTeamSat1" and the CubeSat with the …

Inaugural Mission Concepts-1 Program, Jose L. Núñez, Jesse Olson, Beth Hemmerich, Norman L. Phelps, Shanessa Jackson, Emilia Colman, Sarah Fox

Small Satellite Conference

Learn about the innovative mission design collaboration between the Department of the Air Force Research Laboratory's University Nanosatellite Program (UNP) and NASA that will broaden access to space and strengthen the capabilities and knowledge of higher education institutions, faculty, and students. The presentation will include an overview of the inaugural program, summary of the activities conducted with participating universities, and plans for future programs.

Model-Based Systems Engineering Education With Cubesat Education Kit "Hepta-Sat Lite", Ryusuke Iwata, Masahiko Yamazaki

Small Satellite Conference

In this study, we propose education using the CubeSat system education kit "HEPTA-Sat LITE" in order to learn Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) practically. HEPTA-Sat LITE is a CubeSat system education kit that contains a satellite bus system including a microcomputer, battery, and sensor devices on a single 55mm x 55mm palm-sized board, and has an external power supply and communication interface, making it expandable and versatile. The kit has expansion boards such as a universal board and a breadboard, which can be connected to HEPTA-Sat LITE to easily install other devices. Therefore, participants can experience satellite system development from …

Growing The Local Space Workforce Through Synergistic Collaborations Of The Philippine Space Agency, Universities, And Private Industry, Julie Ann Banatao, John Leur Labrador, Adrian Salces, Manuel Del Rosario Jr., Gabriel Kevin Mabini, Daniel Fadi Rahayel, Floyd Ferrant Fortes, Elaiza Pontrias, Marc Caesar Talampas

Small Satellite Conference

For decades, space technology and applications development have been in the forefront of human advancement. To maximize the gains from these achievements, numerous countries have established space agencies to manage the growing space economy. However, for emerging space countries, the establishment of a space agency and a complementary space ecosystem proves to be a more complex and challenging task.

In this paper, we present a review of lessons learned in building up the local upstream space workforce in the Philippines through various projects spearheaded by the government, mostly through the Philippine Space Agency (PhilSA).

For the projects in collaboration with …

University-Class Spacecraft In 2023: More Missions, More Problems?, Michael Swartwout

Small Satellite Conference

A "university-class" mission is one where the training of the students is as least as important as the in-orbit results from the spacecraft. Since the University of Melbourne's Australis OSCAR 5 launched in 1970, nearly 300 universities around the world have built & launched 720 university-class spacecraft. But, most of these events are recent: more than half of these schools had their first launch in the last five years. Coincidentally, 5 years ago is the last time that a paper like this was presented at the conference. And thus it's worth updating the previous work with all these new data …

Representing Quantum Spins In Different Coordinate Systems For Modelling Rigid Body Orientation, Nadjet Zioui, Aicha Mahmoudi, Mohamed Tadjine

Karbala International Journal of Modern Science

Various methods for representing the spatial orientation and rotation of objects are presented and compared with the quantum bit state representation. By contrasting spherical, Euler angle, quaternion, and quantum spin coordinate systems, this work highlights important concepts regarding the rotation axis of the X gate. Several ambiguities and incomplete definitions associated with the qubit state representation are discussed, such as the spin around the qubit itself and the explanation of the considered rotation angles and signs. A mathematical analysis of the physical meaning of each eigenstate is provided along with a new comprehensive and meaningful YPR-based 3D representation of a …

Quercetin As An Anticancer Candidate For Glioblastoma Multiforme By Targeting Akt1, Mmp9, Abcb1, And Vegfa: An In Silico Study, Muhammad Hermawan Widyananda, Setyaki Kevin Pratama, Arif Nur Muhammad Ansori, Yulanda Antonius, Viol Dhea Kharisma, Ahmad Affan Ali Murtadlo, Vikash Jakhmola, Maksim Rebezov, Mars Khayrullin, Marina Derkho, Emdad Ullah, Raden Joko Kuncoroningrat Susilo, Suhailah Hayaza, Alexander Patera Nugraha, Annise Proboningrat, Amaq Fadholly, Mada Triandala Sibero, Rahadian Zainul

Karbala International Journal of Modern Science

Quercetin, a natural compound present in various fruits and vegetables, shows promise as a potential inhibitor for glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) development. This study aims to examine the anti-GBM potential of Quercetin. The protein target of Quercetin is identified and analyzed using databases such as NCBI, SEA, CTD, and STRING. Protein-protein interaction (PPI) and functional annotation are carried out based on the obtained target proteins. Molecular docking and dynamics simulations are employed using AutoDock Vina and WebGro tools to analyze the interaction between Quercetin and its target proteins. The prediction of protein targets reveals that Quercetin directly targets four proteins associated …

Elucidation Of Antibacterial, Synergistic, Antioxidant, And Anticancer Activities Of Green Synthesized Copper Oxide Nanoparticles Against Human Breast Cancer Cells, Ravindran Muthukumarasamy, Muhammad Luqman Bin Nisa, Nur Absarina Binti Rosli, Nurul Syazwani Binti Kamaruddin, Mohammad Danish, Afzan Binti Mahmad, M.N. Mohamad Ibrahim, Shahnaz Majeed

Karbala International Journal of Modern Science

The study conducted biosynthesis of copper oxide nanoparticles using an aqueous extract of Aspergillus niger and in-vestigated their potential biomedical applications. The nanoparticles were characterized using various techniques in-cluding UV-Vis, SEM, TEM, and EDX, revealing their spherical to crystalline shape with sizes ranging from 21 nm to 48 nm. The nanoparticles demonstrated notable antimicrobial activity against Staphylococcus aureus with a zone of 8 mm and Escherichia coli recorded high synergistic activity with 20.93%, as well as antioxidant properties. Furthermore, selective cytotoxicity towards breast cancer cells was observed with an IC50 of 107.81 ug/ml and an IC50 of 250.93 ug/ml on …

Design Of The Hosted Software Application For The Visors Mission, Ebenezer Arunkumar, Antoine Paletta, Glenn Lightsey

Small Satellite Conference

The VIrtual Super Optics Reconfigurable Swarm (VISORS) mission is a distributed space telescope consisting of two 6U CubeSats that utilize precision formation flying to detect and study the fundamental energy release regions of the solar corona. The inherent complexities and risks associated with two spacecraft operating in close proximity, as well as the unique restrictions of the spacecrafts’ design, make careful autonomous execution crucial to the success of the mission. To address these challenges, this paper outlines the development of the Hosted Software Application (HSA) flight software which manages the Guidance, Navigation, and Control (GNC) algorithms, the payload finite state …

Development Of An Innovative Payload Interface Board For Cubesats, Michael Harrigan, Evan Widloski, Michael Lembeck

Small Satellite Conference

This paper presents a modular, general-purpose payload interface board for rapidly integrating experiment hardware with existing CubeSat control electronics. The PayLoad Support Board (PLSB) provides four configurable power and data interfaces based on the MikroBUS™ standard on a custom-printed circuit board conforming to the CubeSat 1U physical standards. The MikroBUS™ standard has over 1,400 compatible off-the-shelf sensors, interfaces, transceivers, displays, motor drivers, data storage devices, clocks, and other electronic modules, all with a standard socket configuration. Standard 3.3V and 5V power options are provided to each of the interface’s four sockets, and SPI, I2C, and UART communication lines are present …

Commute: Cubesat Swarm Orbital Maneuvers For A Mission To Study Uranus’ Atmospheric Environment, Dylan Barnes, Andrew Cummings, Paula Do Vale Pereira

Small Satellite Conference

Following recommendations from the 2023-2032 Planetary Science and Astrobiology Decadal Survey, new mission concepts are being developed with the focus of launching Uranus’ exploration missions in the early 2030s. To minimize both fuel consumption and cruise time on our way to Uranus, we propose a Jupiter-Uranus gravity assist trajectory using a Falcon Heavy Expendable Launcher to deliver a 3000 kg spacecraft to Uranus orbit in under seven years. The spacecraft will be composed of a mothership of 2000 kg wet mass and a swarm of CubeSats with a combined wet mass of 1000 kg. Using the ephemerides data of Earth, …

Recovery From File System Corruption On The Ops-Sat-1 Experimental Processor, Maximilian Henkel, Vladimir Zelenevskiy, Rodrigo Laurinovics, Omiros Papadatos Vasilakis, David Evans, Georges Labrèche, Dominik Marszk, Sam Bammens

Small Satellite Conference

Recover from radiation and wear induced faults on a spacecraft’s non-volatile memory:

• Regain communication with the processing platform.
• Identify the root cause of the issues.
• Develop mitigation strategies against further corruption.
• Return to nominal state.

Testing Aromatic Thermosetting Copolyester Debonding Characteristics In Low-Earth Orbit, Samantha Betts

Small Satellite Conference

The mission concept proposed seeks to advance the state of the art for on-orbit deployment of joint mechanisms using a family of novel high-strength reversible adhesives known as Aromatic Thermosetting coPolyesters (ATSP). These are self-healing polymers that can be used as a robust reversible adhesive capable of many cycles of reversibility through application of heat and pressure. Their use in orbital deployment could lead to a significant decrease in the complexity and weight penalty associated with deployable mechanisms. Orbital aging studies are being performed to test the material in a relevant environment, but testing of the reversible adhesion has only …

Small Sat Stack A New Era Of Open Source Missions, Jeffery John, Zachary Manchester

Small Satellite Conference

With the advent of open source small satellite software, as well as space-grade Commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) parts, the barrier to entry for new and educational missions has been greatly reduced.

Case studies are now available on space programs currently utilizing some, or solely open source components, with documented challenges and opportunities.

Of particular interest is NASA’s open source flight software, F Prime, well suited for small satellites and systems. By analyzing and spotlighting trends in mission development, features can be preemptively developed by the community at large, and promote greater collaboration among spacefaring institutions.

A free, open web platform to …

Fcc Five Year Deorbit Compliance Tools For Standard Low Earth Orbiting Smallsats Employing Passive Re-Entry Techniques, Celvi Lisy, Prisha Sadhwani, Kei Chua, Angela Huang, Whitney Lohmeyer

Small Satellite Conference

On September 29, 2022, the Federal Communications Committee (FCC) adopted a regulation to address the growing issue of orbital debris, requiring spacecraft in orbits of 2,000 km or less to deorbit as soon as possible, but within no more than five years after the end of the mission. These regulations will be enforced starting in 2024 and will apply to network providers both licensed in the United States and foreign-licensed seeking U.S. market access.

Given the updated legislation, various communications providers may find that their traditional system architectures are not compliant with the five-year rule. In this work, the authors …

Uhf Ground Station For Satellite Communications: The Design, Build, Test, And Lessons Learned, Anargyros Kriezis, Regan Mah, Linda Hu, Celvi Lisy, Zayn Patel, Utsav Gupta, Bernard Adjei-Frimpong, Whitney Lohmeyer

Small Satellite Conference

The Olin Satellite + Spectrum Technology and Policy (OSSTP) Group was founded at Olin College of Engineering to explore real-world, project-based learning with apprenticeship-styled educational experiences in satellite communications. In 2019, OSSTP was awarded the National Science Foundation (NSF) Cubesat Ideas Lab Grant for the Space Weather Atmospheric Reconfigurable Multiscale Experiment (SWARM-EX) mission in collaboration with five other institutions (CU Boulder, Georgia Tech, Stanford, Western Michigan, and University of Southern Alabama) to develop and launch three CubeSats. This mission aims to serve as a pathfinder demonstration of swarm operations at separation distances of 1-1000 km using differential drag and onboard …

A Low-Cost, Miniaturized, Homogeneity-Optimized Helmholtz Cage For Cubesat Attitude Control Ground Testing, Devdigvijay Singh, Michael Galvin

Small Satellite Conference

Reduced launch costs and increased interest from researchers and the public have enabled CubeSats to undergo significant evolution in the past decade, expanding their applications to include a broad range of fields such as communication, navigation, observation, education, and science demonstration. For a wide variety of nanosatellite missions ranging from Earth remote sensing to astronomy-related measurements and space debris tracking, the development of passive or active attitude control systems (PACS/AACS) is of great importance. Of the various attitude control and stabilization methods for small satellites, magnetic techniques such as magnetorquers and hysteresis rods offer modest pointing and detumbling capability while …

Thermal Risk Mitigation Testing Of The Darkness Observatory For Fermi Nationalaccelerator Laboratory, Phoenix M. Alpine, Michael F. Lembeck, Juan V. Estrada

Small Satellite Conference

This paper presents the prototype design and laboratory test results of the thermal control system for the Dark matter as sterile Neutrino Search Satellite (DarkNESS). A collaboration between Fermilab, CU Aerospace, and the University of Illinois Department of Aerospace Engineering’s Laboratory for Advanced Space Systems (LASSI), the 6U satellite uses a Skipper CCD to detect weak 3.55 – 3.57 keV X-ray emissions, previously discovered by the XMM-Newton and Chandra X-ray observatories. To minimize read-out noise, the thermal control system incorporates a 10 W integral rotary cryocooler and passive heat transfer elements, maintaining the CCD at an operating temperature of 170 …

Remote Sensing: A Cubesat Study, Thomas Mylotte

Small Satellite Conference

The purpose of this study is to inform small research groups on the potential Earth observation (EO) and remote sensing missions that are feasible and beneficial that can be conducted on small 1-2U CubeSats. The first steps are to identify the gaps in the current Earth observation missions run by the likes of NASA and ESA for example. By understanding the limitations of conventional satellites, we can match EO and remote sensing missions to the capabilities of CubeSat technology. Four potential EO missions are outlined describing the benefits of utilizing CubeSats alongside traditional satellites.

The Doppler Wind Temperature Sensor (Dwts) Flight Evaluation And Experiments (Tes-16,17), Marcus Murbach, Lawrence Gordley, Joe Gubeli, Benjamin T. Marshall, Arwen Davé, Anthony Colaprete, Alejandro Salas, Ali Kashani, Kwabena Boateng, Avery Brock, Malachi Mooney-Rivkin, Stanley M. Krześniak

Small Satellite Conference

The Doppler Wind and Temperature Sounder instrument (DWTS) developed by Global Atmospheric Technologies and Sciences (GATS) is a simple yet powerful tool with the potential to become a new window through which the study of upper atmosphere dynamics can occur. Based around a defense-grade infrared camera peering through a static gas cell used as a scanning spectral filter, a DWTS instrument can infer wind velocities and kinetic temperatures throughout the stratosphere and lower thermosphere. The DWTS achieves this scanning by measuring the induced Doppler shift and Doppler broadening of emissions as they pass through the DWTS field of view (Gordley, …

Structural Analysis For The Modular Infrared Molecules And Ices Sensor (Mirmis) Instrument, Swati Thirumangalath, Leevi Salonen, Antti Näsilä, Richard Cole, Neil Bowles, Aria Vitkova, Keith Nowicki, Jon Temple

Small Satellite Conference

In June 2019, ESA selected Comet Interceptor as its first "F" class mission. A Dynamically New Comet (DNC) is a subset of long-period comets that originate in the Oort cloud and may hold some of the most primitive material from the early days of our Solar System. Comet Interceptor (CI) aims to be the first mission to visit a long-period comet. As part of ESA's ARIEL mission, CI is scheduled to launch at the Earth-Sun L2 point in 2028 where it will await a suitable DNC target.

The CI mission is comprised of three spacecraft. As part of the CI …