Digital Commons Network^™

Concluding Cysat-1: A Look At The Final Challenges Faced By Iowa State University's First Cubesat, John Elias, Inés Ahedo García, Sydney Schultz, Matthew Nelson

Small Satellite Conference

This paper discusses an overview of the CySat-1 mission, actions taken between its launch and deployment from the ISS, and issues identified in design that impacted the spacecraft’s performance until its re-entry in early January of 2025. The CySat-1 mission was the demonstration of a software-defined radio (SDR) total power radiometer to survey soil moisture. The successful demonstration of the SDR radiometer would have provided basis for future implementation by the SmallSat community by providing an easily customizable radiometer with increased performance versatility. The CySat-1 mission is part of Iowa State University’s (ISU) Make to Innovate (M2I) program, which is …

Contentcube: 1u Cubesat Mission Testing External Display Screens In Orbit, G. Plourde, J. Effenberger, M. Esser, N. Hernandez

Small Satellite Conference

Poster presented during the 2025 SmallSat Conference.

Cots Implementation Of Magnetorquer-Only Cubesat Spin Stabilization, Joshua Umansky-Castro, Deemo Chen, Om Deshmukh, Haonan Gong, Nicholas Natsoulas, Mason Peck, Andrew Filo, Alex Burke

Small Satellite Conference

This paper presents the implementation of CubeSat attitude control algorithms on commercial off the shelf (COTS) hardware. Cornell’s Alpha CubeSat seeks to spin-stabilize using only magnetorquer outputs and IMU inputs. Extensive software development and testing is carried out to overcome these hardware limitations. This paper shares tools, techniques, and niche considerations when bringing the control algorithm from simulation to hardware-in-the-loop (HITL) testing with embedded flight software. In-depth approaches for magnetometer filtering are discussed, along with software implementation decisions for safe mission operations.

Cadence-Swans: Continuous Autonomous Detection Enabling Networked Collaboration Explorers Of A Space Weather Anomaly Notification System, Matthew Chang, Kelly Williams, Pragun Bethapudi, Chloe Lau, Giselle Revolorio, Ella Shepherd

Small Satellite Conference

Through the University Nanosatellite Program (UNP), the Bronco Space Lab at Cal Poly Pomona presents Continuous Autonomous Detection Enabling Networked Collaboration Explorers of a Space Weather Anomaly Notification System (CADENCE–SWANS): a pathfinder mission demonstrating autonomous space weather monitoring using a low-latency, onboard radiation notification system. The spacecraft conducts coarse energy spectroscopy in real time to detect elevated radiation levels and autonomously generate notifications, including time-stamped records of detection-to-decision latency.

CADENCE–SWANS uses a novel compact, low-SWaP-C coarse particle energy spectrograph, constructed with varied thicknesses of shielding, to estimate particle energies without requiring precise pointing or expensive particle detectors. This approach enables …

Cubesat Dr3am: A 4u Demonstrative Robust 3d Additive Manufacturing System, Spencer Stowell, Casey Gooch, Taylor Anderton

Small Satellite Conference

Poster presented during the 2025 SmallSat Conference.

Demonstration Of X-Ray Pulsar-Based Navigation With The Cubesat Astronomical Observatory Ninjasat, N. Ota, T. Takahashi, T. Tamagawa, T. Enoto, T. Kitaguchi, Y. Kato, T. Mihara, W. Iwakiri, M. Numazawa, T. Takeda, H. Takahashi, Y. Zhou, K. Uchiyama, Y. Yoshida, N. Ota, S. Hayashi, S. Watanabe, A. Jujo, A. Aoyama, S. Iwata, K. Yamasaki, H. Sato, C. Hu, H. Odaka, T. Tamba, K. Taniguchi

Small Satellite Conference

This study examines the feasibility of X-ray pulsar navigation with the CubeSat. We developed NinjaSat equipped with gas X-ray detectors sensitive to 2–50 keV with effective area of 16 cm² at 6 keV. We estimate position and velocity of NinjaSat from Crab pulsar observation data by orbital estimation method based on “Significance Enhancement of Pulse-profile with Orbit-dynamics”. As a result, the estimated position accuracy was within 59 km.

Design, Development, And Testing Of An Electrical Power System With A Multiple-Battery Charge Regulator Approach For The 6u Cubesat Vertecs, Chinathip Narongphun, I. Kato, S. Nakagawa, L. Zamba, B.H.V. Kumar, N.C. Örger, T. Nakagawa, K. Sano

Small Satellite Conference

Poster presented during the 2025 SmallSat Conference.

Detumbling Analysis And Attitude Stabilization Of Spicesat: A Closed-Loop Control Verification Framework, Spencer Talish, Francesca Fusco

Small Satellite Conference

This study investigates the detumbling capabilities of SPICEsat following an initial angular disturbance imparted by the deployer. SPICEsat, which stands for Sloshing Platform for In Orbit Controller Experimentation, is a 6U CubeSat developed by Rutgers University to investigate the effects of fuel sloshing on spacecraft stability and control. Top level, this research’s objective is to confirm SPICEsat's ability to reduce angular momentum, thereby achieving a stabilized post-deployment attitude. This is referred to as detumbling, or the process of reducing a satellite’s rotational rates following deployment. The system-level focus centers on assessing the control authority of the Blue Canyon Technologies (BCT) …

Developing A Full System Thermal Analysis Of A Cubesat To Design A Low-Cost Battery Heater System, Owen Nesbit, Sydney Whilden, Deepak R. Mishra

Small Satellite Conference

The Mission for Education and Multimedia Engagement Satellite (MEMESat-1) is a low-budget 2U CubeSat under development by the University of Georgia Small Satellite Research Laboratory. Once launched into LEO, the CubeSat will serve as an FM repeater for the Ham Radio community and will uplink and downlink donor-submitted images.

To verify that all MemeSAT-1 electrical components remain within their operational temperature limits throughout its lifetime, a system-level thermal analysis is performed using C&R Technology’s Thermal Desktop. This software allows for the satellite to be subjected to LEO temperatures and solar radiation, accurately simulating the amount …

Developing A Model-Based Systems Engineering Methodology For Academic Cubesat Missions, Piper L. Kline

Small Satellite Conference

Cube Satellites (CubeSats) have become increasingly popular, particularly in academic settings, due to their affordability, rapid development timelines, and utility as platforms for student training and experimental payloads. Despite these advantages, CubeSat development presents several challenges, including limited resources such as personnel, funding, and time, as well as difficulties in maintaining comprehensive documentation and managing requirements. Student-led projects face additional obstacles, such as inexperienced team members and high turnover rates, which can result in inadequate passing of knowledge. Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) has emerged as a promising approach to address these challenges and improve the efficiency of CubeSat design and …

Development Of A Polarization-Based Optical Communications Ground Station For The Pulse-A Cubesat, Juan Ignacio Prieto Asbun, Leah Vashevko, Mason Mccormack, Rodrigo Spinola E Castro, Ashley Ashiku, Joshua Johnson, Elizabeth Rosario, Kevin Zamudio, Sasha Malysheva, Nusret Efe Ucer, Qihong Wu, Sofia Mansilla, Seth Knights, Logan Hanssler, Mohammad Hassan, Sofia Cavallione, Nguyen Do, Tian Zhong

Small Satellite Conference

The Polarization-modUlated Laser Satellite Experiment (PULSE-A) is the University of Chicago’s student-led mission to demonstrate an optical downlink at a data rate of 1 to 10 Mbps using circular polarization shift keying (CPolSK). PULSE-A comprises a 3U CubeSat bus carrying a < 1.5U optical transmission terminal and a dual optical-RF ground station. The ground station (GS) system consists of the optical ground station (OGS) and the RF ground station (RFGS). The RFGS is responsible for standard communications and control tasks, while the experimental OGS receives the optical transmission from the satellite’s payload.

To perform satellite-to-ground optical communications, the OGS needs to track, receive, and decode the transmitted signal while providing its own beacon, which allows the satellite to track the OGS. These requirements are accomplished by four assemblies within the OGS: tracking, polarization state preparation, signal decoding, and beacon. The tracking assembly collects, condenses, and collimates incoming laser light from the …

Development Of A Scalable Electrical And Mechanical Backplane For The Guaranisat-2 Cubesat Mission, Edgar Elias Ramirez Sosa

Small Satellite Conference

This paper presents the design, development, and validation of a custom backplane interface board for GuaraniSat-2, Paraguay's second nanosatellite. GuaraniSat-2 is a 3U CubeSat developed through a collaborative effort led by the Paraguayan Space Agency (AEP) and SpaceLab, with the active participation of stakeholders such as the Polytechnic and Engineering Faculties of the National University of Asunción (UNA), Catholic University of Asunción (UCA), the LIESE lab at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), and Astradyne, an Italian startup spun off from the Polytechnic University of Bari (Politecnico di Bari). The backplane board functions as …

Development Of An Open-Source Spacecraft Bus For The Pulse-A Cubesat, Graydon Schulze-Kalt, Robert Pitu, Spencer Shelton, Catherine Todd, Zane Ebel, Ian Goldberg, Leon Gold, Henry Czarnecki, Mason Mccormack, Larry Li, Zumi Riekse, Brian Yu, Akash Piya, Vidya Suri, Dylan Hu, Colleen Kim, John Baird, Seth Knights, Logan Hanssler, Tian Zhong, Michael F. Lembeck

Small Satellite Conference

The undergraduate-led Polarization-modUlated Laser Satellite Experiment (PULSE-A) at the University of Chicago seeks to demonstrate the feasibility of circular polarization shift keyed satellite-to-ground laser communication. Free-space optical communications offer significantly improved data rates and lower power requirements than radio frequency communications for a similar form factor, which makes optical communications of particular interest for future satellite missions as on-orbit data collection rates increase. PULSE-A’s low-cost open-source bus serves as the backbone of the mission and has been designed in tandem with the Payload, with design driven by strict requirements for pointing accuracy, component alignment, power demand, and thermal stability. This …

Development Of Itasat-2 Cubesat's Primary Structure With Ait-Oriented Design Now, Denis Guilgim Vieira, Lídia Shibuya Sato, Renan Guilherme Soares Meneses, Felipe Oliveira Tavares, Uziel Parada Nunes, Pedro Henrique Dos Santos Alves, Douglas Luan Cardoso Arena, Isabela Dos Santos Pereira, Luis Eduardo V. Loures Da Costa

Small Satellite Conference

The ITASAT2 mission is a key advancement in CubeSat technology, building upon the progressive development of small satellite missions at the Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica (ITA). As a continuation of the ITASAT and SPORT missions, ITASAT2 consists of three 16U CubeSats in a formation flight, designed to investigate critical space weather phenomena and perform technological demonstration of geolocation and formation flight. In addition to its scientific contributions and technological demonstration, the mission incorporates technological advancements to improve CubeSat design and integration processes. The ITASAT2 project is part of the progressive evolution of CubeSat missions at ITA, simultaneously addressing space weather …

Development Of Mechanical Ground Support Equipment For Small Satellite Thermal Vacuum Testing, Vincent Côté-Larouche

Small Satellite Conference

Small satellite thermal vacuum tests involve securely mounting a spacecraft in a chamber, providing a representative thermal environment in the absence of convection. This study investigates the design of mechanical ground support equipment for supporting a range of spacecraft masses, from cubesats to ESPA-Grande class satellites of up to 500 kg, inside an existing thermal vacuum chamber. A system of four pieces of equipment is proposed to facilitate thermal vacuum testing, while keeping in mind various considerations such as the laboratory cleanroom environment, available floor space, the load capacity of the chamber rails, the thermal vacuum environment and the human …

Extremely Low-Cost Optical Receiver For Extremely Low Resource Optical Identifiers, Ashin Alex, Joseph Ashby, Kevin Walker, Brennan Chai, Catherine Qualtrough, John E. Cater, Nicholas J. Rattenbury

Small Satellite Conference

Space object identification (SOI) is essential for space traffic management, situational awareness, and mission operations. The Extremely Low Resource Optical Identifier (ELROI), developed by Los Alamos National Laboratory, provides a persistent and interference-free identification method for small satellites through a self-powered optical beacon. ELROI transmits a unique identification code via low-power laser pulses, enabling ground stations to identify spaceborne assets without relying on traditional radio beacons. However, the efficacy of the ELROI system relies on the widespread availability of highly sensitive and cost-effective ground-based optical receivers. To address this need, we are developing a low-cost optical receiver capable of detecting …

Finch Eye: The Optical And Optomechanical Design Of A Grism-Based Swir Hyperspectral Imaging Payload For A 3u Cubesat, Iliya Shofman, Mario Ghio Neto, Theaswanth Ganesh, Kenya He, Aidan Armstrong, Ksenya Narkevich

Small Satellite Conference

Crop residue is an important metric used for agricultural land-use monitoring and climate science research. Estimating crop residue coverage is essential to sustainable agricultural practices. There already exist scientific hyperspectral satellites, such as PRISMA and EnMAP, that can be used for crop residue estimation; however, they are very expensive to build and cannot be monopolized by individual farms. This leaves a gap in satellite remote sensing solutions which can be deployed operationally and at the farm scale. We seek to fill this gap by developing a low-cost satellite solution for crop residue estimation. The University of Toronto Aerospace Team is …

Hermes: A Satellite Surrogate Communication Testbed For Ground-Station Validation Using Software Defined Radio And Openc3 Cosmos, Luiz Felipe Bromfman, Gustavo Gargioni, Zach Leffke, Jonathan Black

Small Satellite Conference

Poster presented during the 2025 SmallSat Conference.

Navigation Signal Generator For Leo-Pnt On Cubesat Platforms, Ina Jeong, Pilkyo Jeong, O-Jong Kim

Small Satellite Conference

Poster presented during the 2025 SmallSat Conference.

Neoseeker To Investigate Earth’S Neighbors, Ryan Holton, Harrison Auerbach, Anthony Stan, Kevin L. Simmons

Small Satellite Conference

Poster presented during the 2025 SmallSat Conference.

Origamisat-2: 3u Cubesat Demonstrator For Two-Layer Pop-Up Origami Deployable Membrane Reflectarray Antenna, Atsuki Ochi, Hiraku Sakamoto, Takashi Tomura, Ryosuke Sakurai, Gen Nakayama, Delburg Mitchao, Atsushi Shirane, Kenichi Okada

Small Satellite Conference

Poster presented during the 2025 SmallSat Conference.

Preliminary Results For Collision Probability Predicted Using Gnss Ephemeris From Cubesats, Weichih Lin, Binson Shih-Pin Lee, Loren Chang

Small Satellite Conference

According to an ESA research report, there are now more than one million pieces of space debris larger than one centimeter in low Earth orbit (LEO) [1]. Conjunction assessment (CA) has been drawing attention in various fields. This study proposes leveraging space borne Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) data, including raw pseudorange measurements, to obtain the satellite state vector and covariance for SmallSats or CubeSats. The proposed approach offers the advantage of enabling autonomous CA risk evaluations, while mitigating measurement uncertainties typically associated with ground-based radar systems. Real-time satellite state enables more accurate predictions of future collision probabilities. The COSMIC-2 …

Robot Swarm: A Test Platform For Spacecraft Formations, Colbren Fujimoto, Scott Ginoza, Yosef Ben Gershom

Small Satellite Conference

Satellite swarms are transforming space exploration by enabling cost-effective missions and distributed onboard intelligence. Precise formation control is critical for optimized data collection, collaborative sensing, and collision avoidance. NASA’s Starling mission demonstrates how scalable, autonomous swarms enable satellites to operate as a coordinated network in low Earth orbit [1]. This research project offers a practical, cost-effective platform for testing agile swarm formation control using physical robots, enabling testing and validation of formation control algorithms and evaluating their effectiveness. This project tests Interstel’s iCOSMOS-Swarm, a software platform designed for autonomous coordination of unmanned vehicle swarms. The formation includes four robots to …

Prototyping A Sparse-Aperture, Segmented, Parabolic Primary Mirror Telescope For Supersharp, Zoe O. Horvath

Small Satellite Conference

The SUPERSHARP mission concept for large, unfolding, lightweight, sparse-aperture space telescopes is inspired by the ongoing search for life in the universe [1]. The SuperSharp company is developing small-satellite versions of this concept for use in thermal infrared for Earth observation with applications in climate change research [2]. The motivation of my research is to help advance the alignment techniques and procedures of this technology for future applications in space observation at shorter wavelengths; this will be accomplished through the development and alignment of a laboratory prototype of a sparse-aperture, parabolic primary mirror telescope (see Figure 1) using the alignment …

Satellite Autonomous Launch Assembly (Satlass), Anthony Todisco Jr., Jaden Caradine, Caleb Garner, Rithika Nagarajar, Alex Brown, Hannah Robinson, Jeffrey Smothermon

Small Satellite Conference

Poster presented during the 2025 SmallSat Conference.

Satellite Navigation With Earth Islands For Scope-1, S. Anand Agrawal, Brandon A. Jones

Small Satellite Conference

Spacecraft optical navigation can deliver autonomous navigation onboard when Earth-based tracking is saturated, obstructed, or impractical. Optical navigation relies on the correspondences between detected and known or mapped features in imagery to extract position and/or velocity, and data-driven methods, which directly leverage collected data to learn, can improve detection performance. This paper presents an initial data-driven Earth-based detection system using islands as landmarks for the SpaceCraft for Optical- based Position Estimation-1 (SCOPE-1) 3U CubeSat, which will be paired on board with a physics-based estimation framework. The system consists of an island detector trained on Earth observation imagery of islands, an …

Simulation-Based Evaluation Of Dual-Mode Propulsion Strategies For Small Satellite Collision Avoidance, Michael Harrigan, Charles Cundiff, Joshua L. Rovey, Victoria Coverstone

Small Satellite Conference

As Low Earth Orbit (LEO) becomes increasingly congested, small satellite missions face growing challenges in executing effective collision avoidance maneuvers under limited time and propellant constraints. Dual-mode propulsion systems, combining high-thrust chemical and high-specific impulse electric modes, offer a promising approach to balance rapid response with propellant conservation. This paper evaluates how such systems can be applied to reduce the Probability of Collision (PC) within constrained maneuver windows using sequential chemical-electric burns.

A FreeFlyer-based simulation framework models dual-mode collision avoidance maneuvers across synthetic LEO scenarios. For each case, user-defined mission parameters, such as lead time, PC threshold, and orbital altitude, …

Skyforge Core: A Triple Modular Redundant Computing Architecture For Small Satellites, Harrison Schmitt, Thomas Mcwatters, Ethan Hoyt, Josh Ellman, Sameer Sikander, Nate Westrum, Jordan Clark, Taebaeksanmaek Jung, Micah Williams, Lauren Myers, Kelden Wright, Matthew Homburg, Alex Roth, Jinran Zhang, Peter Staritz

Small Satellite Conference

As small satellite missions grow in complexity, there is increasing demand for greater onboard computational performance. Traditional radiation-hardened processors, while reliable, are expensive, slow, and suffer from long procurement timelines. In contrast, commercial off-the-shelf processors like the Raspberry Pi offer high performance at low cost but are vulnerable to radiation-induced faults such as single-event upsets. SkyForge Core is an experimental computing system that addresses this challenge by integrating three Raspberry Pi Zero W units into a triple modular redundant architecture. The system executes identical tasks on each Pi, compares outputs using majority voting, and identifies discrepancies. If a failure occurs, …

Spacenet Testbed – Small Satellite Constellation Network Emulation Of Real-World Scenarios, Suryansh Aryan, Jack Downs, Alexander Kedrowitsch, Josh Smith, Alexa Houck, Samantha P. Kenyon

Small Satellite Conference

Poster presented during the 2025 SmallSat Conference.

Sustainable Satellite Servicing With 12u Cubesats: A Policy-Aware And Cost-Optimized Approach, Sneha Gayen, Nitya Jagadam, Victoria Coverstone

Small Satellite Conference

Poster presented during the 2025 SmallSat Conference.