Digital Commons Network^™

The Solar Neutrino And Astro-Particle Physics (Snappy) Cubesat Development, Brian M. Sutin, Edward Bierens, Brian Doty, Atri Dutta, Jonathan Folkerts, Brooks Hartsock, Kyle Messick, Holger Meyer, Daniel Reichart, Nick Solomey, Mark Crystal, Miguel Rodriguez-Otero, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Robert Mctaggart, James Cutler, Joel Steinkraus, Jose G. Rivera

Small Satellite Conference

The SNAPPY CubeSat, which was launched May 3, 2026, will demonstrate and space qualify the νSol neutrino-detection technology. The NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program funded the νSol study to determine the scientific and technical challenges associated with a solar neutrino detector operating in close orbit around the Sun, such as a Parker Solar Probe–like orbit at 7 solar radii and potentially as close as 3 solar radii. This program began in 2017 and has continued with funding from NIAC and NASA’s Heliophysics Division. The νSol technology detects solar neutrinos using a gallium isotope which decays by …

Neutron-2: A Dual Cubesat Mission For Three-Dimensional Mapping Of Neutron Radiation In Low Earth Orbit, Miguel Nunes, Piper Kline, Kenoi Salvador, Peter Englert, William Edmonson, Craig Hardgrove, Erik B. Johnson

Small Satellite Conference

Neutron interactions in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) remain a poorly characterized component of the space radiation environment, despite their potential to significantly impact spacecraft electronics, materials, and crew health. Unlike primary charged particles, most neutrons in LEO are secondary products generated when high-energy protons and heavy ions from galactic cosmic rays or solar energetic particle events interact with atoms and molecules in Earth’s atmosphere. The production rate of these secondary neutrons is strongly dependent on atmospheric density, which varies with altitude, geomagnetic position, and solar activity, leading to spatial and temporal variability that is not well captured by current radiation …

Results From Nasa’S Distributed Spacecraft Autonomy Project’S Extended Mission On Starling, Caleb Adams, Michael Iatauro, Brian Kempa, K. Michael Dalal, Sergei Gridnev, Michael Ho, Caroline Lassiter

Small Satellite Conference

The Distributed Spacecraft Autonomy (DSA) experiments on Starling 1.0 marked a significant milestone as the first demonstration of fully autonomous distributed operations on multiple spacecraft. DSA demonstrated the ability to adapt to measurements of Total Electron Content (TEC) and visibility of GPS satellites in a fully distributed autonomous manner. In subsequent experiments, DSA 1.5 focused on improving its science proxy towards a higher fidelity data product computed at the edge, as well as addressing emergent autonomy needs from Starling 1.0, particularly local autonomy and robust crosslink data transfer.

The purpose of improving the TEC measurement was to demonstrate that high-quality …

Ground-Based Magnetic Attitude Determination For Low-Cost Cubesat Missions, Johnny Mccaskill, Evan Jellison, Jackson Holden, Blagoy Rangelov

Small Satellite Conference

This work presents the development and validation of a low-cost attitude determination approach for small satellites operating in low Earth orbit using only magnetometer data. The proposed method leverages measurements of Earth’s magnetic field collected by onboard magnetometers in conjunction with orbital information processed on the ground. By comparing observed magnetic field vectors with reference values generated from the World Magnetic Model, the system estimates the satellite’s orientation with minimal onboard processing requirements. The resulting attitude solution is then transmitted back to the spacecraft for potential use in attitude control or mission planning.

Because all computation occurs on the ground, …

Successful Deployment Of The First Free-Flying Light Sail: Results From The Cornell University Alpha Cubesat Mission, Joshua Umansky-Castro, Jonathan Ma, Duncan Mcdonald, Damian Hackett, Zach Garcia, Lauren Greenhill, Eric Zhang, Cameron Goddard, Y. Deemo Chen, Matthew Hurford, Apurva Hanwadikar, Grace Tang, Gillis Lowry, Mason Peck, Andrew Filo, Alex Burke

Small Satellite Conference

Alpha CubeSat is a mission led by students of the Cornell University Space Systems Design Studio to deploy a ChipSat-equipped free-flying retroreflective light sail in LEO. The spacecraft launched with NASA CSLI on the NG-23 ISS cargo resupply mission on September 14th, 2025 and deployed from the space station as part of NRCSD-29 on December 2nd, 2025. The mission was a success, with all primary mission objectives accomplished. This paper presents the mission results, with insights into the critical decision-making made within the first 48hrs of the mission to deploy and establish contact with the light sail payload. From conception …

A Resilient-By-Design Command & Data Bus Architecture For Small Satellites, Jay Deorukhkar, Peter W. Pachowicz

Small Satellite Conference

As the proliferation of small satellites continues at a staggering rate, so does the mission complexity and criticality of ensuring reliability throughout the satellite bus. Specifically, the command and data bus connecting subsystems within a small satellite can experience radiation-induced faults that potentially derail the satellite’s intended operation, necessitating architecture- and protocol-level fault management. This paper presents an innovative ”Resilient-by-design” communication bus that incorporates a dual-hot redundant architecture and an intelligent, adaptive protocol to coordinate messages and manage faults in an autonomous, self-recoverable manner.

Arcstone: Calibration Of Lunar Spectral Reflectance From Space - One Year On-Orbit Performance, Michael Cooney, Cindy Young, Mark Banchy, Noah Ryan

Small Satellite Conference

Arcstone is a 6U CubeSat launched June 2025 to demonstrate in-space validation of an approach for measuring the lunar disk reflectance to a high degree of accuracy, which will be used to create a new lunar model for calibration of reflected solar instruments. The mission was funded via NASA's InVEST program and had design input, analysis, management and operation from NASA Langley Research Center with multiple collaborators doing additional design work, calibration, and analysis. The Arcstone instrument is a hyperspectral instrument spanning the spectral range from 350 nm to 2300 nm. Arcstone views the Moon and the Sun controlling detector …

I Think I'M Falling For You: Xvi Mission's Final Days In Orbit, Lee Jasper, Erika A. Chavez, Andrew A. Knuth, Adam T. Reinelt, Cameron Shideler, Jayce Thedford, Declan Byrne, Michael Dompke

Small Satellite Conference

The Air Force Research Lab’s (AFRL) Small Satellite Portfolio (SSP) created the XVI CubeSat which was launched on SpaceX’s Transporter 8 in June of 2023. 

XVI remained operational from June 2023 until its deorbit on January 7, 2026. Throughout its lifetime, the team maintained the vehicle and used XVI for experimentation and training purposes. However, due to the sun's low activity around this time frame, and intentionally lowering the drag/cross sectional area of XVI on orbit, the spacecraft was able to stay in orbit for months beyond its initial predicted re-entry. 

Between January 4th and January 7th, XVI was tracked …

Student-Led Operational Framework And Initial On-Orbit Lessons Learned In Multifunctional Membrane Mission Helios-R, Daichi Ishido, Masanori Matsushita, Yuki Takao, Ahmed Kiyoshi Sugihara, Osamu Mori, Tetsuya Kusumoto, Yukiho Ohtsuki, Yuto Nakagawa, Haruhito Ohki, Kaho Nakagawa, Shusaku Tsuruya, Masaaki Shigematsu, Fumiya Aono, Kaine Amakawa, Akihiro Kushima, Ayumu Kawasaki, Jiro Takada, Hinata Yamamoto, Reiji Kobayashi, Ryuki Shimizu, Hiroaki Yoneda, Hirona Kawahara, Junya Taguchi, Satsuki Yokohori, Tomoyo Shibata, Kazuki Hamatsuki, Mao Takata, Toshiyuki Hori, Hiroaki Ito, Akihito Watanabe, Sota Kume, Atsuki Ochi, Takuma Komaba, Hiraku Sakamoto, Atsushi Shirane, Kenichi Okada, Ayako Torisaka, Nobukatsu Okuizumi, Yasutaka Satou, Yasuyuki Miyazaki, Atsuhiko Senba

Small Satellite Conference

To enable a broad range of space activities, small satellites require innovative solutions for lightweight, high-power generation. HELIOS-R (Harvesting Energy with Lightweight Integrated Origami Structure), co-developed by JAXA, Institute of Science Tokyo, and Sakase Adtech Co., Ltd., is a pioneering multifunctional membrane component. Launched in December 2025 as part of the RAISE-4 mission, it integrates thin-film solar arrays, a 5G array antenna, and an interferometer antenna on a 1-meter equilateral triangular membrane. This paper details a reliable operational framework developed by a diverse, student-led team from JAXA/ISAS to address stringent operational constraints and technical challenges arising from severe launch delays. …

Long-Term Software-Defined Formation Flying And Its Application To Space Mimo Communications, Takaya Inamori, Keita Tanaka, Kiyoshi Kinefuchi, Shigeru Sunada, Yousuke Kawabata, Ayumu Nono, Takumi Noro, Yukihisa Otani, Norihide Miyamura, Eiji Okamoto, Yuma Abe, Yoshimi Fujii, Hiroyuki Tsuji, Takuya Okura, Rei Kawashima, Takuto Ogawa, Tomoyuki Miyashita

Small Satellite Conference

Formation flying of multiple small satellites is expected to enable novel space missions that cannot be achieved by a single satellite. Small sized satellites are strongly affected by environmental disturbances and have strict constraints on mass, volume, and power. This study focuses on characteristics that become prominent as satellites are miniaturized, such as the increased influence of space environment and enhanced interactions among onboard components. By utilizing these effects, the research aims to realize propellant-less, software-defined formation flying. The proposed technologies are applied to space MIMO (multiple input multiple output) communications, in which communication capacity is improved by controlling the …

Advancing Wavelet-Adaptive Interference Cancellation To Enable Cubesat Constellations For High-Fidelity Ac Magnetometry, Surya S. Kalluri, Alex P. Hoffmann, Mark B. Moldwin, James W. Cutler, Yethinder Ragav Lakshmi Kumar, Lauro V. Ojeda

Small Satellite Conference

Dense CubeSat constellations equipped with science-grade AC magnetometers offer a transformative path toward high spatial and temporal resolution of several magnetospheric phenomena that large spacecraft missions cannot resolve. Realizing this vision demands boomless magnetometry– due to deployment risks and resource constraints on nano/micro satellite platforms in large scale –capable of operating in the presence of intense spacecraft-generated electromagnetic interference without the spatial separation that conventional booms provide. This paper advances the characterization of the Wavelet-Adaptive Interference Cancellation for Underdetermined Platforms (WAIC-UP) algorithm across different frequency regimes and two distinct classes of test data. In the 50 Hz to 30 kHz …

Toward Trainable Ai Agents For Satellite Operations, Haley Calderon, Vaibhav Bhosale, Ketan Bhardwaj, Ada Gavrilovska

Small Satellite Conference

Low Earth orbit is increasingly crowded, and a growing share of it is flown by universities and small operators. These teams must detect and respond to on-orbit anomalies with far less staff, expertise, and tooling than large operators, and a single missed anomaly can end a mission. We present COMET, a ground-based operator agent that helps a small team both detect anomalies and diagnose them. COMET pairs a learned detector with a retrieval-augmented diagnosis stage. An LSTM autoencoder flags anomalous telemetry windows, and a language model explains each one against the mission’s own documentation, procedures, and prior operational records. Because …

Passive Thermal Imaging And Failure Detection Of Large-Area Space Structures Using Spin Crossover Composite Skins, Edward Pomianek, Codrin Tugui, Denise Maria De Andrade, Mihai Duduta

Small Satellite Conference

Deployable solar arrays are among the most failure-prone structures on spacecraft, and on small satellites their large area, low mass, and mechanical complexity make faults both more likely and harder to observe. Electrostatic discharge, string arcing, and localized hot spots can degrade or disable an array, yet the mass and harness penalties of distributed point sensors are difficult to accommodate within CubeSat resource budgets. This paper presents a passive, camera-readable sensing skin based on spin crossover (SCO) composite films that converts thermal events on a large-area structure into persistent optical information. The active material, [Fe(NH₂trz)₃]Br_{2 …}

An Ai-Enabled Ground Processing Pipeline For Image Restoration And Super-Resolution In 1u Cubesat Missions, Juan Bernardo Calabrese, Manuel Alejandro González Mendoza, Eduardo De La Vega Segura

Small Satellite Conference

The inaugural 1U CubeSat mission of Universidad Panamericana represents a shift in academic remote sensing, prioritizing ground-segment intelligence to overcome the physical and computational constraints of a 10-centimeter cubic form factor. Given strict power limitations, the satellite utilizes a low-cost, space-qualified XCAM C3D imaging system providing moderate-quality 1.3MP imagery with a ground sample distance (GSD) of approximately 360 meters at an altitude of 550 kilometers. To transform these raw frames into high-value Earth Observation products, this paper details an automated ground station framework hosting a modular image processing pipeline. The pipeline combines traditional image processing—including histogram equalization and edge enhancement—with …

Synthesis, Thermal Stability, And Ionic Conductivity Of Phenyl-Extended Viologen Ditriflate Salts: Tailoring Properties Via Oxyethylene Chain Length, Seonghyeok L. Cox, Emily Moon, Si L. Chen, David King, Haesook Han, Pradip K. Bhowmik, Calvin Ng Yi Bin, Thamil Selvi Velayutham, Alfonso Martinez-Felipe

Chemistry and Biochemistry Faculty Research

Six new phenyl-extended viologen salts with oxyethylene groups paired with triflate anions (OTF) have been synthesized using anionic ring-opening and ring-closing reactions (ANRORC) and metathesis reactions with LiOTf salts. The salts, which contain terminal oxyethylene chains of varying lengths ((CH₂CH₂O)_n, n = 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 7), are named PEOn-OTF. These materials exhibit a fluorescence response and possess high thermal stability, with processing windows up to approximately 300 °C, as confirmed by thermogravimetric analysis. While samples with short chain lengths (n = 1, 2, and 3) undergo crystallization observed …

The Dual Impact Of Professional And Community Interventions On Recidivism, Anjelika M. Dillard

Master of Arts in Human Services

This capstone project evaluates the effectiveness of professional and community interventions in reducing criminal recidivism and facilitating successful community reintegration for justice-involved individuals. Grounded in the Risk-Need-Responsivity (RNR) model, Desistance Theory, and Trauma-Informed Care frameworks, this study synthesizes contemporary behavioral health and criminological literature to examine how institutional programming and post-release community support interact to foster long-term behavioral change. The findings demonstrate that while evidence-based institutional treatments—such as Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), and targeted vocational training—provide essential foundations for cognitive restructuring and skill acquisition, institutional programming alone is insufficient to prevent re-offending. Long-term desistance depends on an …

The Ecological Impacts Of Un-Protecting Forests: The Case Of Gold Mining In Ghana, Tate Alexander Barend

Master's Theses

This paper estimates the causal effect of Ghana’s Legislative Instrument 2462 (L.I. 2462) on deforestation in protected areas. The policy redefined the regulatory regime governing small-scale gold mining in protected areas, moving from prohibition to discretionary permitting. I exploit the implementation of L.I. 2462 as a policy shock and apply a difference-in-differences event-study framework to a propensity score–matched sample of pixels derived from high-resolution satellite images. Contrary to widespread concerns that the policy would accelerate deforestation, the results provide no evidence of large-scale vegetation loss in exposed protected areas following the policy change. Instead, protected area pixels located within 5 …

Interpretable Multimodal Learning For Integrating Neuroimaging And Genetic Data In Alzheimer’S Disease, Kun Zhao, Siyuan Dai, Yingying Zhang, Guodong Liu, Pengfei Gu, Chenghua Lin, Paul M. Thompson, Alex D. Leow, Heng Huang, Haoteng Tang

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Introduction: Early detection of Alzheimer's disease (AD) requires models that combine brain structure changes with genetic risk, but existing methods struggle to align these different data types.

Methods: We present R-GenIMA, an interpretable multimodal large language model that pairs a region-of-interest vision transformer with genetic prompting to jointly analyze structural MRI and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Each brain region becomes a visual token and SNP profiles are encoded as structured text, letting the model link regional atrophy to genetic factors through cross-modal attention. Tested on the ADNI cohort, R-GenIMA performs well in classifying four groups: normal cognition, subjective memory concerns, …

Bit-Flip Sensitivity And Selective Fp32 Protection For Onboard Neural Networks In Flight Software: In-Place Secded Healing Of An Fp32 Weight Buffer Inside Nasa Cfs, Ryan Goodman, Carson Cramer, Braden Eichmeier, Emily Gerber, Christopher Roscoe

Small Satellite Conference

Smallsat missions increasingly deploy neural networks on COTS processors. In orbit, a charged particle striking such a device can flip a single bit of memory, a single event upset (SEU). An upset in a network weight raises no fault condition: the network continues to run, returns incorrect values, and the control loop downstream acts on them. 

The standard cFS response to memory corruption is process restart, which interrupts service and discards runtime state.

In-Transit Debris Remediation: Dual-Use Logistics For Sustainable Cislunar Smallsat Constellations, Wanjiku Chebet Kanjumba

Small Satellite Conference

A Debris Crisis Meets A Logistics Boom: Low- and high-Earth orbit keep accumulating debris faster than the atmosphere can clear it, even as NASA's Artemis and CLPS programs establish routine trans-lunar traffic. The 2009 Iridium-Cosmos collision and later anti-satellite tests proved that single fragmentation events can irreversibly degrade critical orbital shells, raising the specter of Kessler Syndrome. 

• 46,600+ objects tracked on orbit today, with ~130 million sub-cm fragments (ESA, 2025)
• $500K-$2M cost per kilogram for dedicated ADR, fiscally intractable at system scale
• 5-10 / yr large objects must be removed to stabilize LEO (Liou & Johnson)

The Unit-Economics Problem: Purpose-built …

Polarization-Modulated Laser Satellite Experiment (Pulse-A) Thermal Control, Zane Ebel, Alexavier Moore, Samy Kouidri, Veryan Johnson, Robert Pitu, Juan Ignacio Prieto Asbun, Tian Zhong

Small Satellite Conference

• UChicago's first student-developed satellite, started in September 2023
• Accepted under Batch 15 of NASA's CubeSat Launch Initiative (CSLI) in March 2024
• 3U CubeSat demonstrating space-to-ground optical downlink using circular polarization shift keying (CPolSK)
• LEO, 400-500 km, ~90 min orbit
• Preparing for Critical Design Review in Fall 2026

Autonomous Microelectronics See Payload For Validating Terrestrial Predictions In Space, Michael A. Blacconiere, Isaac Hudson, John W. Burgoon, Terrance Sacks, Spencer Westfall, Sajal Islam, Davidson Juhke, George Randel, Jared Harvey, Merek Chertkow, Daniel Loveless

Small Satellite Conference

The radiation environment in space is complex and time-varying, causing major risks for microelectronic applications. Terrestrial radiation sources are used to characterize devices before missions to predict in-orbit error rates. However, these predictions are rarely validated in deployment. The payload, designed by IU CREATE and The Radiation Team, the IUB-SAT-1, integrates IU’s RadFX-IC and commercial SRAMs with well-characterized terrestrial radiation responses into a modular payload to collect on-orbit radiation-response data. Results will refine radiation error-rate models and improves confidence in deploying advanced microelectronics to radiation-rich space environments.

Experimental Assessment Of A 15-N Nitrous Oxide And Ethane Thruster For Premixed And Non-Premixed Operations, Eunwoo Jung, Juwon Kim, Eunkwang Lee, Keunseok Lee, Yonggu Kim, Minwoo Lee

Small Satellite Conference

• Nitrous Oxide (N₂O) has attracted significant attention as an oxidizer for next-generation small scale propulsion systems due to its non-toxic and high vapor pressure, which enables self-pressurization.  
• By combining N₂O with hydrocarbon fuels, propulsion systems can be operated either as bipropellant systems or as premixed propulsion systems.  
• N₂O-based premixed propellants, commonly known as NOFB (Nitrous Oxide Fuel Blend), require only a single propellant tank, similar to monopropellant systems, resulting in a simplified system architecture; however, their high susceptibility to flashback necessitates the incorporation of dedicated flashback prevention devices.  
• The objective of this study is …

F Prime To Flight Faster: Hardware-In-The-Loop Continuous Integration For Accelerated Cubesat Development, Nate Gay, Saidi Adams, Michael Pham

Small Satellite Conference

Flight software teams iterate quickly in development and then slow down at integration, because the software must be validated against real hardware that is itself still changing. 

Bench testing is manual, intermittent, and happens late. Defects surface days after the commit that caused them, once the context is gone and the change has been built on.

Forecast-Aware Formation Initialization For High-Revisit Vleo Imaging, Mina Khalilzadeh Fathi, Zachary Wrensch, Chaoying Pei

Small Satellite Conference

Very-low Earth orbit (≲ 300 km) enables high-resolution imaging with smaller optics. A leader/follower pair can halve the revisit gap by maintaining precise along-track phasing. 

At 250 km, even a small ballistic-coefficient mismatch amplified by geomagnetic storms drives a phasing error that grows quadratically in time and closes the imaging window within days. 

• Conventional methods focus on formation keeping and react to density after the fact. 
• We act before the drift grows: a density forecast is used to choose both the handover phase and the optimal time to reverse the drift. 

The Base Got Hit: Interpersonal Communication Strategies In High-Stress Space Projects, Allison E. Barnes, Avery G. Barriga, John F. Connolly

Small Satellite Conference

The AggieSat Laboratory (AGSL) is a student-driven laboratory with 17 years of space systems experience and flight heritage. As AGSL prepares to launch several space systems over the next three years, reflecting on lessons learned from past projects is critical to improving future reliability and execution. This survey analyzes communication dynamics in past CubeSat and ISS payload projects, specifically within the high-stress phases of Assembly, Integration, and Test (AI&T) and Mission Operations, where a combination of young engineers and high-stakes decision-making can often lead to compounding, avoidable technical anomalies.

This survey identifies specific interpersonal strategies to mitigate human error, including …

Vision-Based Pose Estimation Of A Low-Inertia Robotic Capture Arm, Dane Groves, Willem Jordaan

Small Satellite Conference

The development of CubeSat-integrated robotic arms has expanded the possibilities for In-Orbit Assembly, Repair, and Servicing (OARS). A low-inertia robotic capture arm has been designed previously using remote actuation¹. In the context of CubeSats, this allows heavy actuators to be placed in the base of the CubeSat and lightweight, slender links can be connected to form an arm. This design, depicted in Figure 1, allows for a robotic arm with a low moment of inertia.

The limited 6.5 mm link profile prevents the integration of high-resolution joint encoders, motivating the use of an alternative state estimation technique. This …

Plasma Magnet Propulsion For Smallsat Deep Space Missions: Scaling Laws, Trajectory Analysis, And A Path To Flight Demonstration, Surya S. Kalluri

Small Satellite Conference

The plasma magnet uses a rotating magnetic field (RMF) to drive azimuthal currents in ambient plasma, inflating a spacecraft dipole to kilometre scale so momentum is taken directly from the solar wind. Using plasma currents in place of physical coil proposed for similar concepts previously like Magnetosail, M2P2 etc., eliminates the constraints on size and dynamic pressure of seed plasma. Because the inflated plasma — not a structure — sets the obstacle size, thrust is independent of distance from sun while the required power falls as the antenna grows. Earlier experiments showed >10 kA driven currents, inflation beyond ten coil …

A Comparative Analysis Of Radio Frequency And Optical Inter-Satellite Link Communications For Leo Mega-Constellations, Alexa Houck, Suryansh Aryan, Kevin Schroeder, Samantha Kenyon

Small Satellite Conference

SpaceNet design  

Software-based testbed for simulating large satellite networks, specifically LEO-based constellations to analyze network behavior, connectivity, routing, and overall communication.  

• Phase one focuses on connectivity and routing: Given the topology and link availability over time, how does my network behave? 
• Phase two focuses on network emulation: Given the topology and link availability over time, how does my network behave? 

Arcsecond-Level Pointing Accuracy In A Cubesat: Development And Verification Of The High-Precision Pointing System For The Cubespec Mission, Leonardo Peri

Small Satellite Conference

Mission and objectives 

CubeSpec is a 12U CubeSat mission designed to demonstrate high-resolution stellar spectroscopy from a small, low-cost space platform. 

Its scientific objectives require the payload line-of-sight to remain stable within a few arcseconds. This is beyond the capability of conventional CubeSat Attitude Determination & Control Systems (ADCS). 

To meet this challenge, CubeSpec uses a dual-stage pointing architecture: the spacecraft ADCS provides coarse body pointing, while a High-Precision Pointing Platform applies fast, precise corrections directly to the payload line-of-sight.