Digital Commons Network^™

Nebulous: Applying Genetic Algorithms To Design Next-Generation Satellites For Drag Resilience, Rick Marcusen, Adrian Bryant, Julie Rolla, Max Foreback, Evan Imata, Emily Dolson, Kyle Helson, Marcin Pilinski, Anselmo C. Pontes, Jonathan Sy, Joey Wagner, Scott Palo

Small Satellite Conference

Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO) is a region of space between ~150-400 km that is becoming increasingly valuable for operators of large satellite constellations. VLEO's proximity to the Earth enables improved technical performance, such as higher surface image resolution and lower communications latency, as well as less expensive and more frequent launch opportunities. However, one significant disadvantage to operating in VLEO is the increased effects of aerodynamic drag, which can reduce a mission's lifetime and decrease a spacecraft's position accuracy. To address this, we introduce NEBULOUS, a genetic algorithm-based design tool that evolves spacecraft geometries through generations of mutation and …

Progressing From High-Altitude Balloon Validation To Orbit: Establishing Cubesat Capability In Nevada Through Incremental Design, Kylee Brahma, Leandro Araiza, Christian Ługowski

Small Satellite Conference

UNLV ATLAS-1—Analysis of Temperature and Radiation in Low-Earth Orbit for Analog Studies—is a student-led 1U CubeSat mission at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. The project uses an incremental approach, progressing from mock-satellite prototypes to high-altitude balloon flights and, ultimately, orbital deployment. By increasing system fidelity alongside student experience, UNLV ATLAS-1 aims to create a repeatable pathway for CubeSat development in Nevada and beyond.

Relative Position Determination For Satellite Formation Flying Using Radio-Wave Strength Considering Antenna Deformation, Sho Watanabe, Takaya Inamori, Yosuke Kawabata

Small Satellite Conference

Background:

Increasing use of formation flying in space missions:

• Requires formation establishment and maintenance
• Relative orbit determination is essential

Conventional Methods

• Camera
• Laser
• GNSS

Large size and mass are mostly required

Depends on the orbit and satellite attitude

Using received signal strength can overcome these limitations.

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.

Design And Development Of A Miniaturized Helmholtz Cage For Cubesat Adcs Testing, Karla Sever, Marko Bosiljevac

Small Satellite Conference

• Magnetic field generation and compensation are essential for laboratory testing of an attitude determination and control system (ADCS) for small satellites. Since commercial magnetic test facilities are often unavailable or impractical for university laboratories, such setups are typically developed in-house. A controlled magnetic environment allows for reliable magnetometer characterization, magnetorquer testing, and evaluation of attitude control algorithms, enabling repeatable ADCS experiments under well-defined conditions.
• At our university, a CubeSat-class ADCS is being developed from the ground up by students, with a focus on hands on hardware development and experimental validation. The current ADCS prototype includes magnetic sensors, custom-developed magnetorquers, and …

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.

Distributed Avionics As A Foundational Architecture For Cubesat Constellations And Swarms, Aaron S. Swagei, Ali Guarneros-Luna

Small Satellite Conference

Motivation

CubeSat constellations and swarms require spacecraft that can tolerate subsystem faults without relying exclusively on a single centralized flight computer. Distributing sensing, control, and fault-management authority can improve containment and enable graceful degradation.

Objective

Develop and experimentally evaluate a distributed CubeSat avionics architecture in which subsystem nodes retain local fault-management authority while an F´-based OBC provides mission-level coordination.

The FlatSat is used as a representative spacecraft-level building block for future constellation and swarm architectures.

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.

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 …

Lighting Up The Moon: A Scheduling Framework For Cislunar Space Based Solar Power Orchestration, Vaibhav Bhosale, Andrew Woo, Ada Gavrilovska, Christopher R. Valenta, Ketan Bhardwaj

Small Satellite Conference

Surviving the Lunar Night

• 14 Earth day lunar nights
• More batteries, more mass, higher cost

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 …

An Open-Source Gps Simulator For Small Satellites In Low Earth Orbit, Marc Oger, Ada Li, Yousif Elwishahy, Ari Cholakian, Max Xiang, Warrick Lo, David G. Michelson

Small Satellite Conference

Small Earth-observation satellites, such as the University of British Columbia's upcoming ALEASAT mission, require accurate knowledge of their orbital position so that they can target specific locations on the globe as required by the needs of their users while avoiding restricted areas as required by government regulations.

You Are Beloved, Anna Bennett

The Main Thing Devotional

“See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are,” 1 John 3:1, NIV.

Beyond Better Conditions: Seaweed Farming And The Number Of Sentient Animals In Aquaculture, Shrilaxmi Patil, Matthew Unerman, Wasseem Emam

Animal Sentience

Oldfield & Bonano (2024) (O&B) document how far  fish welfare research lags behind welfare research in other animals. We share O&B’s feelings-based concept of welfare and agree that aquaculture seeded this field; but research volume has not scaled with animal numbers: Welfare attention per farmed fish or decapod remains negligible. Along the lines of preceding commentaries (Maia 2024, Mather 2024), we treat farmed aquatic animals as individuals rather than tonnage. We then raise a point so far absent from the commentary on O&B so far: reducing the number of sentient animals entering intensive systems. Coastal seaweed farming, which cultivates non-sentient …

20260824: Marshall Artists Series, April 14, 2025 - April 26, 2026, Marshall Artists Series

Guides to University Archives

These items include materials from the Artists Series at Marshall University from 2025-2026. Items were received in 2026 and include seven movie sized posters outlining the shows that were done as part of MAS from April 14, 2025 through April 26, 2026. Please download the finding aid for a full list of contents.

Unmanned Aerial Support Program In Portland Police Bureau: A Case Study, Eiryn Renouard

Dissertations and Theses

With the Portland Police Bureau (PPB) adopting drone technology in 2024 as a tactical tool, officers have begun to experience change in the way they approach their roles as they learn to work in conjunction with this new technology. Known as the Unmanned Aerial Support program (UAS), this drone program is embedded into PPB's patrol unit. The recency of the program offers an opportunity to examine how a new program using new technology builds its culture and impacts the perspectives and behaviors of its participating officers. By interviewing officers and conducting field observations of the officers and drones in action, …

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 …

Korucusat-2: Optimizing The Satellite Communication System And Attitude Determination And Control System For Very-Low Earth Orbit, Gianna Goldstein, Carson Burnside-Wheeler, Omer Eski, Ramin Adams

Small Satellite Conference

The KorucuSAT-2 CubeSatellite mission, scheduled for launch in 2027 into a 230-km orbit, is designed around a brief orbital lifetime. This motivates the clear goal of early communication and rapid collection of experimental data within the mission’s limited operational window. CubeSatellites operating in Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO) can face strong aerodynamic torques and longer detumbling periods. In order to establish early communications and extend the mission’s timeline, a resilient communications system that can operate during the detumbling phase of the mission is needed. The communications system aboard KorucuSAT-2 accomplishes this by using a near-omnidirectional antenna pattern and packet interleaving …

Engineering Model Development Of The Micro Solar Sail Pieris: Single-Motor External-Torque Control And High-Accuracy Sail-Shape Realization, Yusuke Arai, Yusei Kawaguchi, Toshihiro Chujo, Kei Watanabe, Yuki Amaki, Kenichiro Takahashi, Eima Zamami, Kota Saito, Kotaro Yamauchi, Yuya Shiraishi, Shoma Abe, Kenshi Hatada, Moe Yasuda, Sota Sato, Shohei Yamasaki, Matsukawa Ohma, Yota Nakazaki, Hiroki Tanaka, Hisanobu Nomura, Katei Fu, Sora Masaki, Naoya Yamada, Hideo Yoshida, Gen Nakayama, Soma Mori, Takehisa Wada, Takashi Tomura, Hiroki Nakanishi, Yoichi Yatsu, Yasuyuki Miyazaki, Omura Soma, Go Morita, Momoko Fukunaga, Hiroyuki Ono, Takeru Nakamura

Small Satellite Conference

The 40-kg class micro solar sail “PIERIS,” equipped with a 25 m² reflective membrane, will be launched in 2027. This paper explains PIERIS’s mission design, the unique challenges of this satellite system and their solutions, and the current development status. PIERIS will be launched into LEO at approximately 600 km altitude to demonstrate two novel technologies for addressing significant disturbance torques acting on its large membrane surface.

First, it will demonstrate a technology that actively adjusts the offset between the center of action of external torques and the satellite's center of mass to control these torques. PIERIS connects the bus …