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Space Vehicles

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Articles 1321 - 1350 of 1867

Full-Text Articles in Aerospace Engineering

A Photogrammetry-Based Hybrid System For Dynamic Tracking And Measurement, Daniel P. Magree Jun 2010

A Photogrammetry-Based Hybrid System For Dynamic Tracking And Measurement, Daniel P. Magree

Theses and Dissertations

Noncontact measurements of lightweight flexible aerospace structures present several challenges. Objects are usually mounted on a test stand because current noncontact measurement techniques require that the net motion of the object be zero. However, it is often desirable to take measurements of the object under operational conditions, and in the case of miniature aerial vehicles (MAVs) and deploying space structures, the test article will undergo significant translational motion. This thesis describes a hybrid noncontact measurement system which will enable measurement of structural kinematics of an object freely moving about a volume. By using a real-time videogrammetry system, a set of …

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New Space Access Opportunities, Robert J. Twiggs May 2010

New Space Access Opportunities, Robert J. Twiggs

Robert "Bob" Twiggs STEM Education Collection

A PowerPoint presentation created by Professor Bob Twiggs titled "New Space Access Opportunities" May 18, 2010.

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A Novel Telescopic Boom Deployment System For Use In Upper Atmosphere Research, Mark Wylie, Paul Duffy, Dinesh Vather, Johnalan Keegan, Stephen Curran May 2010

A Novel Telescopic Boom Deployment System For Use In Upper Atmosphere Research, Mark Wylie, Paul Duffy, Dinesh Vather, Johnalan Keegan, Stephen Curran

Conference Papers

Typical measurement probe deployment systems on sounding rockets employ hinged booms which extend the probes away from the rocket. This configuration often has a significant mass and may require a considerable amount of the rocket’s valuable payload volume. In an effort to reduce both mass and volume, the DIT Space Research Group have designed a light weight carbon fibre telescopic boom system, compatible with measurement probes commonly used in upper atmosphere research. Our design has been selected to be tested on a suborbital space flight onboard the REXUS 9 sounding rocket in March 2011. The purpose of this test is …

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Programs With Rockets, Robert J. Twiggs Apr 2010

Programs With Rockets, Robert J. Twiggs

Robert "Bob" Twiggs STEM Education Collection

A PowerPoint presentation created by Professor Bob Twiggs on "Programs with Rockets" from April 5, 2010.

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Minimizing Losses In A Space Laser Power Beaming System, Charlie T. Bellows Mar 2010

Minimizing Losses In A Space Laser Power Beaming System, Charlie T. Bellows

Theses and Dissertations

A mathematical model is developed to track the amount of power delivered in a wireless laser power beaming system. In a wireless system the power proceeds through several different stages before being delivered to a payload for use. Each of these stages results in power losses that are thoroughly examined and modeled, allowing for the calculation of the likely amount of power delivered. Adjusting variable factors within the model allows for the optimization of the system for a specific task. The model shows that an optimized wireless power transfer system can deliver enough power to meet the space experiment objectives. …

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Development Of A Remotely Operated Autonomous Satellite Tracking System, Michael E. Graff Mar 2010

Development Of A Remotely Operated Autonomous Satellite Tracking System, Michael E. Graff

Theses and Dissertations

AFIT is currently developing a capability to remotely and autonomously track LEO satellites using commercial telescopes. Currently, the system is capable of open-loop tracking based on Two-Line Element sets (TLEs) downloaded from NORAD’s space object catalog. The ability to actively track using a closed-loop control system would allow tracking of satellites which deviated from the published TLEs along with providing some information about the object’s new orbital elements. To accomplish closed-loop tracking, the object is imaged by a digital camera connected to a wide field-of-view (WFOV) spotting scope. Software was developed to provide azimuth and elevation inputs in order to …

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Assembly, Integration, And Test Methods For Operationally Responsive Space Satellites, Lisa A. Baghal Mar 2010

Assembly, Integration, And Test Methods For Operationally Responsive Space Satellites, Lisa A. Baghal

Theses and Dissertations

Current government and industry standards in spacecraft testing result in an Assembly, Integration, and Test (AIT) timeline greater than six months. These standards will not support the vision of Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) to deploy a satellite within six days to fill an urgent need. Using the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Plug-and-Play Satellite (PnPSat), multiple Rapid AIT trials were conducted. By exercising the AIT process with various spacecraft configurations and personnel, methods for reducing or modifying traditional testing regimen were investigated.

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Exfit Flight Design And Structural Modeling For Falconlaunch Viii Sounding Rocket, Michael J. Vinacco Mar 2010

Exfit Flight Design And Structural Modeling For Falconlaunch Viii Sounding Rocket, Michael J. Vinacco

Theses and Dissertations

This research effort furthers the Air Force’s study of reusable launch vehicles and hypersonic airfoils by conducting a hypersonic flight test using the US Air Force Academy’s FalconLAUNCH VIII sounding rocket. In this study, two experimental fin tips were designed and attached to the sounding rocket in place of two stabilizer fins in order to collect data throughout the rocket’s hypersonic flight profile. The desire to research, study, and test experimental fin tips was driven by the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Future responsive Access to Space Technologies (FAST) program and their desire to include vertical stabilizers on the wing tips …

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Relative Orbit Elements For Satellites In Elliptical Orbits, Kirk W. Johnson Mar 2010

Relative Orbit Elements For Satellites In Elliptical Orbits, Kirk W. Johnson

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to describe the unperturbed relative motion of Earth satellites in elliptical orbits using a simple dynamics model whose parameters allow significant geometrical insight and operational efficacy. The goal was to retain the advantages of the Relative Orbit Elements (ROE) realization of the Hill-Clohessy-Wiltshire (HCW) equations, a linearized dynamics model for circular reference orbits. Specifically, this thesis analyzed the geometry of satellite rendezvous and proximity operations using the ROE parameters to characterize the model’s utility. Next, through a comprehensive literature review, this thesis sought possible approaches for developing a similarly useful parameterization for chief orbits …

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Estimating Characteristics Of A Maneuvering Reentry Vehicle Observed By Multiple Sensors, Evan M. Brooks Mar 2010

Estimating Characteristics Of A Maneuvering Reentry Vehicle Observed By Multiple Sensors, Evan M. Brooks

Theses and Dissertations

Post flight analysis of ballistic missile reentry vehicles is an area of focus for the U.S. Government, especially for those involved in ballistic missile defense. Typically, this analysis incorporates either a model-driven least squares filter or a data-following Kalman filter. The research performed here developed a filter that attempts to integrate the strengths of both filters. A least squares filter operates on observation data collected during exoatmospheric free flight and a Kalman filter is used to analyze data collected lower in the atmosphere, where potential maneuvers could be performed. Additionally, the filter was written to incorporate data from multiple sensors. …

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Accurate Dynamic Response Predictions Of Pnpsat I, Michael D. Trottier Mar 2010

Accurate Dynamic Response Predictions Of Pnpsat I, Michael D. Trottier

Theses and Dissertations

Researchers at the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) and the Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) Office have conducted extensive vibration testing and structural modeling on the first ORS Plug-and-Play Satellite (PnPSAT I). The intent of this research effort is to evaluate the premise that current post-integration spacecraft environmental test requirements can be reduced or modified using accurately tuned finite element (FE) models. As part of this research, modal testing was conducted on the PnPSAT I structural panels at AFIT. The modal testing was part of a much larger series of experimental trials on various configurations of PnPSAT I at the …

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Verification Of Kam Theory On Earth Orbiting Satellites, Christian L. Bisher Mar 2010

Verification Of Kam Theory On Earth Orbiting Satellites, Christian L. Bisher

Theses and Dissertations

This paper uses KAM torus theory and Simplified General Perturbations 4 (SGP4) orbit prediction techniques compiled by Dr. William Wiesel and compares it to Analytical Graphics ® Incorporated (AGI) Satellite Toolkit ® (STK) orbit data. The goal of this paper is to verify KAM torus theory can be used to describe and propagate an Earth satellite orbit with similar accuracy to existing general perturbation techniques. Using SGP4 code including only truncated geopotential effects, KAM torus generating code, and other utilities were used to describe a particular satellite orbit as a torus and then propagate the satellite using traditional and KAM …

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Cfd Analysis Of Experimental Wing And Winglet For Falconlaunch 8 And The Exfit Program, Benjamin P. Switzer Mar 2010

Cfd Analysis Of Experimental Wing And Winglet For Falconlaunch 8 And The Exfit Program, Benjamin P. Switzer

Theses and Dissertations

Reusable launch vehicles have many benefits over their expendable counterparts. These benefits range from cost reductions to increased functionality of the vehicles. Further research is required in the development of the technology necessary for reusable launch vehicles to come to fruition. The Air Force Institute of Technology’s future involvement in the ExFIT program will entail designing and testing of a new wing tip mounted vertical stabilizer in the hypersonic regime. One proposed venue for experimentation is to utilize the United States Air Force Academy’s FalconLAUNCH Program which annually designs, builds, and launches a sounding rocket capable of reaching hypersonic speeds. …

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Orbit Maneuver For Responsive Coverage Using Electric Propulsion, Timothy S. Hall Mar 2010

Orbit Maneuver For Responsive Coverage Using Electric Propulsion, Timothy S. Hall

Theses and Dissertations

The use of continuous electric propulsion to manipulate a satellite’s orbit offers significant potential for enhancing coverage of a target in ways not previously considered. Elliptical orbits utilizing a very low perigee can facilitate access to the surface and atmosphere of the Earth at sub-ionosphere altitudes while counteracting atmospheric drag forces using continuous electric propulsion. Additionally, in-plane and out-of-plane manipulation of both circular and elliptical orbits can allow for passage of a satellite over a target at a given time. Sustained low perigee orbit was modeled with an initial perigee altitude of 100 km and various apogee altitudes to derive …

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Analysis Of Slewing And Attitude Determination Requirements For Ctex, William J. Starr Jr. Mar 2010

Analysis Of Slewing And Attitude Determination Requirements For Ctex, William J. Starr Jr.

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the slewing and attitude determination requirements for the Chromotomographic Experiment (CTEX), a chromotomographic-based hyperspectral imager, to be mounted on-board the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) External Facility (EF). The in-track slewing requirement is driven by the facts that CTEx has a very small field of view (FOV) and is required to collect 10 seconds of data for any given collection window. The need to slew in the cross-track direction is a product of the small FOV and target/calibration site access. CTEx incorporates a two-axis slow-steering dwell mirror with a range of ± 8 degrees and an accuracy of …

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Thrust And Performance Study Of Micro Pulsed Plasma, Jeremy J. Selstrom Mar 2010

Thrust And Performance Study Of Micro Pulsed Plasma, Jeremy J. Selstrom

Theses and Dissertations

This research is focused on several areas of the μPPT performance. An important idea studied is the effect of lifetime use on the performance. The thruster is fired for a simulated lifetime of use to see if there is an impact on the thrust of the thruster later in life. Also vital is the efficiency of the thruster. A μPPT performing at max efficiency will ionize all ablated material; however, we know that not to be the case. In this research the effort is made to collect these non-ionized particles in order to measure their mass post-test. With this collected …

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System Integration And Attitude Control Of A Low-Cost Spacecraft Attitude Dynamics Simulator, Ryan L. Kinnett Mar 2010

System Integration And Attitude Control Of A Low-Cost Spacecraft Attitude Dynamics Simulator, Ryan L. Kinnett

Master's Theses

The CalPoly Spacecraft Attitude Dynamics Simulator mimics the rotational dynamics of a spacecraft in orbit and acts as a testbed for spacecraft attitude control system development and demonstration. Prior to this thesis, the simulator platform and several subsystems had been designed and manufactured, but the total simulator system was not yet capable of closed-loop attitude control. Previous attempts to make the system controllable were primarily mired by data transport performance. Rather than exporting data to an external command computer, the strategy implemented in this thesis relies on a compact computer onboard the simulator platform to handle both attitude control processing …

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Adaptive Control Applied To The Cal Poly Spacecraft Attitude Dynamics Simulator, Matthew C. Downs Feb 2010

Adaptive Control Applied To The Cal Poly Spacecraft Attitude Dynamics Simulator, Matthew C. Downs

Master's Theses

The goal of this thesis is to use the Cal Poly Spacecraft Attitude Dynamics Simulator to provide proof of concept of two adaptive control theories developed by former Cal Poly students: Nonlinear Direct Model Reference Adaptive Control and Adaptive Output Feedback Control. The Spacecraft Attitude Dynamics Simulator is a student-built air bearing spacecraft simulator controlled by four reaction wheels in a pyramidal arrangement. Tests were performed to determine the effectiveness of the two adaptive control theories under nominal operating conditions, a “plug-and-play” spacecraft scenario, and under simulated actuator damage. Proof of concept of the adaptive control theories applied to attitude …

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Spacecraft Coating-Induced Charging: A Materials And Modeling Study Of Environmental Extreme, Michelle M. Donegan, Jennifer L. Sample, John R. Dennison, R. Hoffman Jan 2010

Spacecraft Coating-Induced Charging: A Materials And Modeling Study Of Environmental Extreme, Michelle M. Donegan, Jennifer L. Sample, John R. Dennison, R. Hoffman

All Physics Faculty Publications

As mankind reaches to explore extreme environments in space, the application of ceramics surface coatings is increasing. The 2005 mission concept for Solar Probe used a unique design to achieve the necessary thermal control for a very close approach to the solar corona, including the use of a highly refractory, electrically insulating ceramic coating over a carbon-carbon composite heat shield. The proposed trajectory takes the spacecraft from a Jovian fly-by to within 4 solar radii of the Sun, spanning 5 orders of magnitude in solar radiation and solar wind plasma density as well as spacecraft temperatures from <100 K to >2000 K. Using …

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Exomedicine Synthesis Paper, Rita Briggs Jan 2010

Exomedicine Synthesis Paper, Rita Briggs

Robert "Bob" Twiggs STEM Education Collection

A report by Rita Briggs titled "Exomedicine Synthesis Paper" from 2010.

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Removal Of Biofilm Through Controlled Cavitation, Mathew Chackalackal Mathew Dec 2009

Removal Of Biofilm Through Controlled Cavitation, Mathew Chackalackal Mathew

Master's Theses - Daytona Beach

Human kind is poised to take the next "giant step" in space exploration, the manned mission to Mars, among other things. But before any plans for such long term habitation on an alien planet, there has to be consideration towards prevention and removal of bacterial contamination. Bacterial contamination or rather degradation of materials was considered of negligible importance. Bacterial degradation can be serious for long-term manned space mission, more so because there is no way to obtain quick replacements. For such conditions, a new innovative way of bacterial removal has been proposed wherein the bacteria is removed with no damage …

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A Domain-Specific Design Tool For Verifying Spacecraft System Behavior, Sravanthi Venigalla Dec 2009

A Domain-Specific Design Tool For Verifying Spacecraft System Behavior, Sravanthi Venigalla

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In this report we present a graphical tool, Behavioral Analysis of Spacecraft Systems (BASS), that can be used by spacecraft designers to perform system-level behavioral analysis of small satellites. The domain-specific spacecraft meta-model is created in the visual modeling tool Generic Modeling Environment (GME) such that spacecraft designs created using the meta-model appear familiar to the spacecraft designers. Users can model scenarios that are to be verified for the design in BASS. The graphical models are assigned formal semantics facilitating the creation of formally verifiable spacecraft models. The C++ application that translates the modeling objects to equivalent mathematical representation of …

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The Potential Of Cubesat Networks, Robert J. Twiggs Nov 2009

The Potential Of Cubesat Networks, Robert J. Twiggs

Robert "Bob" Twiggs STEM Education Collection

A PowerPoint presentation created by Professor Bob Twiggs titled "The Potential of CubeSat Networks" from November 17, 2009.

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Small Satellites, Applications And Launch Opportunities, Robert J. Twiggs Oct 2009

Small Satellites, Applications And Launch Opportunities, Robert J. Twiggs

Robert "Bob" Twiggs STEM Education Collection

A PowerPoint presentation created by Professor Bob Twiggs titled "Small Satellites, Applications and Launch Opportunities" from October 16, 2009.

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University Satellite Programs, 1982-2009, Robert J. Twiggs Oct 2009

University Satellite Programs, 1982-2009, Robert J. Twiggs

Robert "Bob" Twiggs STEM Education Collection

A PowerPoint Presentation created by Professor Bob Twiggs titled "University Satellite Programs, 1982-2009" from October 5, 2009.

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Space Systems Design: Building A Satellite To Detect Forest Fires, Robert J. Twiggs Sep 2009

Space Systems Design: Building A Satellite To Detect Forest Fires, Robert J. Twiggs

Robert "Bob" Twiggs STEM Education Collection

A PowerPoint Presentation created by Professor Bob Twiggs titled "Space Systems Design Building a Satellite to Detect Forest Fires" from September 10, 2009.

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Netherlands Antilles Satellite Orbit Development, Leonardo De Abreu Ladeira Sep 2009

Netherlands Antilles Satellite Orbit Development, Leonardo De Abreu Ladeira

Robert "Bob" Twiggs STEM Education Collection

A PowerPoint Presentation created by Leonardo de Abreu Ladeira   titled "Netherlands Antilles Satellite Orbit Development" from September 9, 2009.

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The Need For An Integrated Small Satellite Space Programme: Perspective From The Sumbandila Missions Operations, Pieter Kotze Sep 2009

The Need For An Integrated Small Satellite Space Programme: Perspective From The Sumbandila Missions Operations, Pieter Kotze

Robert "Bob" Twiggs STEM Education Collection

A PowerPoint Presentation created by Pieter Kotze titled "The need for an integrated small satellite space programme: Perspective from the Sumbandila Missions Operations" from September 9, 2009.

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Opportunities For Small Satellite Programs Provided By The Falcon Family Of Launch Vehicles, Spacex Sep 2009

Opportunities For Small Satellite Programs Provided By The Falcon Family Of Launch Vehicles, Spacex

Robert "Bob" Twiggs STEM Education Collection

A PowerPoint Presentation created by SpaceX titled "Opportunities for Small Satellite Programs Provided by the Falcon Family of Launch Vehicles" from September 9, 2009.

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Satedu, University Didactic Satellite For Hands-On Training And Easy Access To Low Cost Small Satellite Missions, Esau Vicente Vivas Sep 2009

Satedu, University Didactic Satellite For Hands-On Training And Easy Access To Low Cost Small Satellite Missions, Esau Vicente Vivas

Robert "Bob" Twiggs STEM Education Collection

A PowerPoint presentation created by Esaú Vicente Vivas titled "SATEDU, University Didactic Satellite for Hands-on Training and Easy Access to Low Cost Small Satellite Missions" from September 9, 2009.

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