Development Of A Novel Thermal Management System For Smallsats, Andrew E. Kalman, Steven Castrillon, Boris Yendler, Adam W. Reif

Small Satellite Conference

Introduction

- High-power space missions demand advanced thermal management

- Traditional rigid radiators limit scalability due to mass and volume.

- This work demonstrates a Thermal Management System (TMS) prototype integrating:

• Rollout Deployable Radiator (RDR)
• Phase Change Material Thermal Accumulator (PCM-TA)
• Integrated Heat Pipes (IHP)

- Components can be used individually or jointly.

Lessons Learned From Operating In The Radiation Environment Of A Highly Elliptical Orbit, Hezekiah Austin, Chris Major, Jake Davis, Tyler Holliday, Rubin Meuchel, Conner Parrott, Zach Hull, David Klumpar, Larry Springer, John Sample, Brock Lameres, Farah Zuberi, Dan Guerrant, Dennis Harris, Maria Banks, Mark Dillard

Small Satellite Conference

Introduction

• In January of 2025, the Firefly Aerospace Blue Ghost Mission 1 (BGM1) lunar lander launched as part of the 19D task order through NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program.

• One of the payloads it carried was the “Radiation Tolerant Computer”, or RadPC.

• RadPC tested a novel FPGA-based computer technology designed to recover from single-event-effects (SEEs).

• The RadPC payload also carried three dosimeters tuned to different energy levels to measure total ionizing dose (TID)

Mosaic - A Modular Orbital Satellite For Advanced Innovation And Curriculum, Evan Jellison

Small Satellite Conference

This paper presents MOSAIC (Modular Orbital Satellite for Advanced Innovation and Curriculum), an open-source, modular satellite platform designed to advance space technology education and to accelerate satellite mission design. MOSAIC is a demonstrator satellite, or “mocksat” that leverages commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components and a modular hardware ecosystem to make satellite technology accessible, affordable, and adaptable for educational institutions and research teams. This work details the technical architecture of MOSAIC, its potential educational benefits, cost analysis, and open-source philosophy, demonstrating its goals to democratize access to satellite engineering and foster the next generation of space professionals.

Revolutionizing Space Thermal Control: The Breakthroughs And Applications Of Pulsating Heat Pipes, Matt Schultz, Jimmy Hughes, Mckenzie Sandberg

Small Satellite Conference

The development of Pulsating Heat Pipes (PHP) offers significant advancements in thermal control technologies. This poster reviews the fundamental mechanisms of PHPs, manufacturing processes, and focuses on how PHPs fit into the current thermal architecture for satellite, payload, and instrument thermal control to identify the best use cases and application of the emerging technology.

Propelling The Future Of Satellite Mobility: In-Orbit Demonstration Of The Go-2 Electric Propulsion System, Kevin Lausten

Small Satellite Conference

As satellite deployment accelerates across both commercial and institutional missions, the limitations of onboard propulsion, especially in SmallSats, are emerging as a key constraint in mission flexibility and sustainability. In 2023, more than 2,860 SmallSats were launched, accounting for 97% of all spacecraft and 63% of total orbital mass [1].

Despite this expansion, propulsion remains a critical constraint in the SmallSat development ecosystem. As of 2024, only 222 nanosatellites out of 2714 nanosatellites launched had confirmed onboard propulsion systems [5], limiting maneuverability, increasing deployment risks, and contributing to orbital debris. This gap reflects not a lack of technological capability, but …

Squidsat: Preparing Future Workforce Using Competition, Joe Dubois, Aaron Bournias, Joe Dukowitz

Small Satellite Conference

SquidSat is a 3u student-led CubeSat mission funded and mentored by the Interplanetary Initiative Lab (IPL) at Arizona State University (ASU). The Overarching goal of SquidSat is to streamline CubeSat development and make payload integration as simple as possible for as large of a range of payload requirements as possible. This idea encourages a wide range of development within the space industry and universities, as it provides ways for professors and students alike to make a satellite payload without needing to know how to make an entire satellite. SquidSat utilizes the spirit of competition to encourage students, labs, and companies …

Streamlined Calibration For Small Satellite Optical Payloads, Deron Scott, Cole Miller, Eli Shay, Shane Canfield, Scott Hansen, Matt Berghout, Jan Kunzler, Duane Miles

Small Satellite Conference

Poster presented during the 2025 SmallSat Conference.

Success Designing A Smallsat Multi-Function Electric Actuator With Cots Hardware., Clay Allen

Small Satellite Conference

Poster presented during the 2025 SmallSat Conference.

The Exploration Company's Mission Possible Demonstration Mission, Daniel Gillies, Jon Reijneveld

Small Satellite Conference

Poster presented during the 2025 SmallSat Conference.

Three-Dimensional Radiation Patterns Of Cubesats And Link Budget Without Attitude Control, Daisuke Nakayama, Kei Sano, Rin Sato, Yusuke Iwaki, Shunya Hayashi, Arisa Oho, Sayanju Sirash

Small Satellite Conference

As CubeSat missions demand higher data rates, directional patch antennas have increasingly replaced traditional monopole or dipole antennas, and ensuring omnidirectional coverage—especially under tumbling conditions—has become critical. To address this, we developed a three-dimensional radiation pattern measurement system that enables the evaluation of antenna characteristics across all possible CubeSat attitudes. To apply these measurements to practical operations, we introduce the Coverage Ratio of CubeSat Attitude (CRCA), which intuitively represents the percentage of satellite orientations that exceed a given required gain. In this study, we apply this methodology to the S-band downlink antenna system of VERTECS, a 6U CubeSat developed by …

Towards Increased Adoption Of Direct To Earth Optical Communications, Simon Fowler, Owain Pryce-Jones, Simran Mardhani, Edem Fiamanya, Alessandro Tringali

Small Satellite Conference

Poster presented during the 2025 SmallSat Conference.

Unikernels: A New Paradigm For Secure, Scalable, And Efficient Small Satellite Operations, Thomas Gazagnaire, Rizo Isrof, Virgile Robles, Miklos Tomka

Small Satellite Conference

Poster presented during the 2025 SmallSat Conference.

Nexosim, An Open-Source, Rust-Based Digital Twinning Framework For Hardware-In-The-Loop Testing And Virtual Flatsats, Serge Barral, Adam Chikha, Maciej Główka, Jakub Gramatyka, Illia Manzelha, Stanisław Massalski, Jaŭhien Piatlicki

Small Satellite Conference

Digital twinning has become a cornerstone of modern space systems, enabling robust in-orbit operations and ground verification and validation. For over two decades, major spacecraft manufacturers and space agencies have relied on Discrete Event Simulation (DES) to achieve these goals. The C++-based Simulation Modelling Platform (SMP), now an ECSS standard, has emerged as a unifying framework for these efforts. Despite the tremendous benefits of simulation-assisted spacecraft development, the complexity, rigidity, and lack of vendor-neutral implementations of SMP have limited its adoption in academia and the NewSpace sector. This gap is particularly concerning given the high failure rate of SmallSat missions, …

Novel Pressure-Based Electric Propulsion Discovery, Wesley Faler, Brad Berkson

Small Satellite Conference

This paper presents a novel electric propulsion system that uses pulsed plasma and ion- electron recombination to generate thrust primarily from internal pressure, using water vapor as propellant. In-space testing of the Poseidon^™ thruster demonstrated 37.49 mN average thrust and over 4,800 seconds specific impulse at under 1.5 W input power. A physics-based model captures the full mass, energy, and momentum balances and matches experimental results, supporting pressure as the dominant thrust mechanism. Experimental detection of proton–boron fusion in the exhaust plume further validates the system's plasma behavior and confirms a key element of its operating cycle.

Under-Actuated Target Tracking Performance - Flight Results From The Ghgsat-D Spacecraft, Niels Roth, Benoit Larouche, Robert E. Zee, Stéphane Lokocki, Laura Bradbury, Marcela Arias

Small Satellite Conference

The GHGSat-D spacecraft, a precursor demonstration to GHGSat’s commercial constellation, was launched on June 21 2016 into a polar Sun-synchronous orbit with altitude 507 km and local time of descending node 10:30. The spacecraft successfully demonstrated GHGSat’s novel payload’s ability to measure and monitor precise greenhouse gas emissions from low Earth orbit. Such measurements were enabled by custom target tracking maneuvers allowing its imaging spectrometer to pan across ground targets of interest at prescribed rates. In July 2017 one of its three reaction wheels exhibited signs of high friction, resulting in its discontinued use. With only two functional reaction wheels …

Klara (Kit De Mesures Pour La Rentrée Atmosphéeique): An Iterative Approach To Low-Cost Atmospheric Re-Entry Capsule, Paul Miailhe, Julien Annaloro, Florian Topeza, Stephane Galera

Small Satellite Conference

No abstract provided.

Big Data Solutions For Cubesat Mission Operations: A Case Study From The Michigan Exploration Lab, Daniil Voloshin, James W. Cutler

Small Satellite Conference

As space missions generate increasingly vast and complex datasets, efficient data management and processing solutions are critical. At the Michigan eXploration Lab (MXL) at the University of Michigan, where we design, build, and operate CubeSats, we have adopted big data technologies, specifically a Hadoop and Spark-based cluster, to address challenges in handling and analyzing large-scale data. These challenges include processing raw I/Q sample recordings from CubeSat satellite passes and suborbital missions, as well as mission-long spacecraft telemetry. The cluster leverages the distributed storage capabilities of the Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS) and the in-memory data processing power of Apache Spark, …

Near Real-Time Optimal Trajectory Design For Active Debris Removal With Verification And Validation Using Kompsat-1, Shawn Choi, Taeyeon Choe, Peter Ryu, Hyeongjun Park, Douglas Deok-Soo Kim

Small Satellite Conference

Geospace is getting busier with an increasing amount of debris, and their removal of such debris is becoming important for the safety, efficiency, and sustainability of geospace. The need for safe and sustainable removal has drawn significant attention to Active Debris Removal (ADR). When a chaser performs a fly-around maneuver to approach a target, it should solve the following optimization problem (OPT): (i) Minimize collision risk against other flying space objects, (ii) minimize fuel consumption, and (iii) maximize mission accomplishment. However, solving OPT is known to be very challenging, as it is at least NP-hard. This is because the trajectories …

Real-Time Space Weather Event Detection And Attribution Using Fpga-Based Machine Learning On Cubesats, Benjamin Lewis, Shawn Jones, Jonathan Phillips, Charles Swenson, Kade Howes

Small Satellite Conference

Utah State University has been developing hardware accelerators and machine learning algorithms for real-time detection and attribution of space weather events on small satellites. This research, funded under the Low-power Array for CubeSat Edge Computing Architecture, Algorithms, and Applications (LACE-C3A), is a NASA STMD-funded effort as part of the University Smallsat Technology Partnerships (USTP). In this paper, we present an FPGA implementation of an AI/ML algorithm for intelligent decision-making, enabling real-time space weather monitoring and now-casting of Equatorial Plasma Bubbles (EPBs). EPBs are low-density plasma structures that form at low latitudes within the Earth’s ionosphere, rising along magnetic field lines …

Predicting Tle Covariance Using Transformer-Based Time Series Forecasting, Thijs Verhaeghe, Bart De Clerk, Ben Lauwens, Tjorven Delabie, Dirk Vandepitte, Bart Vandenbussche

Small Satellite Conference

This paper introduces the notion of using a transformer-inspired time series forecasting model, more specifically IBM’s Tiny Time Mixer (TTM), to predict the covariance of Two-Line Elements (TLEs). The pre-trained compact univariate model is finetuned on a dataset of historical TLEs. Using the well established technique of pairwise differencing, a fixed-interval time series of TLE covariances is generated. This series is merged with exogenous variables extracted from the TLEs themselves, such as the classical orbital elements. The multi-level modeling capabilities of the TTM allow it to capture inter-channel correlations, crucial to capture the complex interactions inherent in the prediction of …

A Radio Payload For In-Space Sub-Terahertz Communications, Andrew Benincasa, Sergi Aliaga, Albert Diez-Comas, Josep Miquel Jornet

Small Satellite Conference

This paper presents the first fully integrated design of a CubeSat-compatible sub-terahertz (sub-THz) radio payload for in-space communications at 225 GHz. Addressing the growing congestion in traditional RF bands and the limitations of Free Space Optical systems, the proposed system leverages recent breakthroughs in compact high-frequency front-ends, horn antenna arrays, and RFSoC-based digital processing to unlock multi-GHz bandwidths in the underutilized sub-THz spectrum. A detailed feasibility study confirms link closure from low Earth orbit using state-of-the-art components, and the payload’s architecture is engineered for real-time high-speed uplink/downlink under stringent CubeSat size, weight, and power (SWaP) constraints. The proposed payload will …

Enhanced Smallsat Agility Via Cmg-Controlled Bus, Bryan Rogler, Forest Rulison, Terry Carl, Kearney Lackas, Matt Carton

Small Satellite Conference

As the small satellite industry continues to grow, mission teams continue to look for opportunities to maximize data collection and thus revenue per spacecraft. Many satellites in this class rely on well-understood traditional reaction wheel technology to provide precise pointing and re-orientation capabilities. Control Moment Gyroscopes (CMGs) offer a quantum leap in re-orientation performance as compared to reaction wheels (RW) but are typically utilized on much larger and more complex spacecraft outside the classification of small satellites. While Blue Canyon Technologies’ (BCT) RW-based spacecraft continue to provide high performing on-orbit pointing performance, BCT spacecraft actuated with a cluster of CMGs …

4096-Element Ka-Band Deployable Active Phased Array Transceivers In A 6u Cubesat, Hiroki Hayashi, Delburg Mitchao, Yasuto Narukiyo, Sena Kato, Keito Yuasa, Jill Mayeda, Hiraku Sakamoto, Kenichi Okada, Atsushi Shirane

Small Satellite Conference

This paper proposes a 4096-element deployable phased-array transceiver for LEO constellations, operating in the Ka-band frequency range. The system is designed for a 6U satellite platform, with the deployable membrane stored within a 2U volume and deploying to form a 670 mm × 670 mm aperture. The antenna features a central active area of 360 mm × 360 mm, with additional regions allocated for heat dissipation. A 7-layer rigid-flex printed circuit board (PCB) is used in the fabrication for the antenna array. A 256-element phased-array antenna was successfully fabricated on this rigid-flex PCB and demonstrates the feasibility of scaling up, …

Uncoupling Batteries From Eps Design — A Power System For The Modern Era, Andrew E. Kalman

Small Satellite Conference

Space electrical power system (EPS) architectures have often been strongly tied to the voltage of the batteries they employ; the battery operating voltages often dictate the solar cell string lengths and the voltage of the primary buses used for power distribution throughout the spacecraft, as well as internal particulars. This paper presents an alternative space EPS architecture that is independent of battery voltage, and instead, simply treats the connected batteries as a source of power and energy which can be drawn from as desired, and recharged as required. This EPS architecture utilizes a ring bus topology, wherein energy sources feed …

Optical Observation Of Mola Cubesat In Orbit Using Ground Telescope, Jeffrey Larsen, Christine Maceo, Isabella Fernald, Matthew M. Knight, Jim Kang, Michael Sanders, Alex Savattone, Giovanni Minelli, Wenschel Lan

Small Satellite Conference

The proliferation of satellites and satellite constellations in orbit, combined with the rapid expansion of telecommunications and wireless “smart” devices on Earth, has led to congestion in the radio frequency spectrum, adversely affecting data transmission and security. Although technological advances in small satellite technology and new commercial models for rocket launches have lowered the barrier for accessing space, the licensing process to use radio frequencies for satellite communications remains an obstacle. Free Space Optical Communication (FSOC) using the near-infrared and visible parts of the unlicensed optical spectrum offers higher bandwidth, faster data rates, and improved security (near-IR). In 2024, the …

Gain Switched Optical Fiber Amplifier With Programmable Optical Noise Source Mode, Anonymous

Defensive Publications Series

An optical amplifier is provided with a gain-switchable configuration integrated with an internal broadband noise source. The amplifier includes multiple amplification stages selectively interconnected by optical switches and variable optical attenuators, enabling operation in distinct gain modes. In addition to normal amplification, the amplifier is configurable into a noise-source mode using a dedicated noise seed source, providing a spectrally flattened, high-power amplified spontaneous emission (ASE). High input isolation is maintained to prevent unintended power surges or component damage during noise-source mode. The disclosed design facilitates advanced calibration, testing, and rapid fault recovery within optical networks, enhancing efficiency, reliability, and flexibility.

Etrasimod Intermediate, Anonymous

Defensive Publications Series

The present study aims to identify and characterize the polymorphic form of the Etrasimod intermediate disclosed in international publication WO2011/094008 A1, specifically the compound of Formula (I).

Eshta’Ol: The Lithic Assemblages, Omry Barzilai

Qadum: Journal of Excavation Reports from Israel

This report presents four lithic assemblages recovered from Areas B–F at the site of Eshta’ol. All assemblages primarily utilize locally available flint types, notably brecciated Campanian and semitranslucent Eocene/Senonian flints. The technological organization is dominated by flake and flakelet industries, with evidence of local knapping activities and the reuse of older tools across periods. Diagnostic tools and technologies indicate distinct occupational phases associated with the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB), Pottery Neolithic (Yarmukian), Early and Late Chalcolithic (Wadi Rabah, Ghassulian) and Early Bronze Age. Despite prolonged occupation, formal tool frequencies remain low, particularly during the Early Bronze Age, suggesting that Eshta’ol …

Eshta’Ol: Faunal Remains From The Chalcolithic Period And Bronze Age, Edward F. Maher

Qadum: Journal of Excavation Reports from Israel

This article presents a zooarchaeological study of a small faunal assemblage recovered from Areas B, D and E at Eshta’ol, dating to the Late Chalcolithic period (Stratum IV), Early Bronze Age IB (Stratum III) and Intermediate Bronze Age (Stratum II). A total of 250 bone fragments were analyzed, with 86 identifiable specimens representing eight species, primarily from the EB IB stratum. The assemblage is dominated by domestic animals—especially caprines, cattle and pigs. Mortality profiles based on epiphyseal fusion and dental wear indicate a preference for secondary products—such as wool, milk and dung—over meat consumption. Small-scale farming and agricultural activity may …

An Improved Process For Preparation Of Dexlansoprazole, Anonymous

Defensive Publications Series

Dexlansoprazole (R)-(+)-([3-methyl-4-(2,2,2- trifluoroethoxy) pyridine-2yl]methylsulfinyl)- 1H-benzo [d]imidazole is a proton pump inhibitor developed by Takeda pharmaceuticals. Dexlansoprazole is available as Dexilant in the market with 30 mg and 60 mg dosage forms for oral administration. First time United States Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) is approved for the treatment of erosive esophagitis and non-erosive gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD or GORD)