Aerospace Engineering Commons^™

Numerical Characterization Of Phase Coherence In Distributed Smallsat Sar Interferometry, Cameron Kaminski

Small Satellite Conference

Distributed SmallSat SAR requires independent spacecraft to maintain phase coherence over long integration times. This work presents a Monte Carlo simulation that combines manufacturer-derived oscillator phase noise, spacecraft thermal dynamics, and orbital perturbations to evaluate passive coherence limits. The results show that oscillator quality alone is insufficient; differential thermal-state evolution becomes a dominant driver of long-duration coherence performance.

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

Aggiesat6 University Cubesat Ops Prep And Leops, Avery G. Barriga, Garrett M. Stevenson, John F. Connolly

Small Satellite Conference

AggieSat6 (AGS6) is a 6U CubeSat designed and developed by students at Texas A&M University (TAMU) as part of the University Nanosatellite Program (UNP) NS-10 cycle. The mission will demonstrate a space-based radio frequency array for Space Domain Awareness (SDA) applications and collect low-energy electron radiation data to improve existing environmental models. Beginning in January 2025, students at TAMU established mission operations architecture, implemented operator training and certification, and prepared to assume sole responsibility for on-orbit operations. The AggieSat6 bus launched into Low Earth Orbit (LEO) in April of 2026. The AGS6 Mission was supported by the University Nanosatellite Program. …

Experimental Analysis Of Cryptography Overhead For Secure Cubesat Telemetry, Tyler Field, Michael Goryll

Small Satellite Conference

Encryption consumes critical and limited resources, such as computing power, energy, and memory. Results from this research has helped SquidSat, a student-led 3u CubeSat launching sometime in 2027-2028, by providing data showing which microcontrollers are most effective for encryption algorithms.

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. 

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.

Promoting Assured Formation Flight Autonomy Onboard Resource Constrained Systems, Ryan Johnson, Maggie Michelsen, Jackson Gardner, Mario Harper, Charles Swenson, Jackson Kulik, Shawn Jones

Small Satellite Conference

Autonomously determining fuel-optimal, formation-keeping trajectories for small spacecraft operating in formation flight is often limited by available processing power. Because SmallSat missions are constrained by size, weight, and power (SWaP), field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) are an attractive option for onboard computing. Traditional formation-keeping relies on convex optimization to solve for fuel-optimal burns and burn times; however, implementing these solvers on FPGAs is challenging due to limited board resources.

To address the need for fast, reliable trajectory planning onboard space vehicles, we investigate leveraging machine learning to reduce computational cost for real-time, onboard execution. We propose using a deep neural network …

Propellant-Free Formation Keeping Using Environmental Perturbations In Leo Via Orbital Angular Momentum Vector Matching, Yu Seike, Takaya Inamori, Keita Tanaka

Small Satellite Conference

Small-satellite formation flying enables new mission capabilities.

e.g. MIMO (Multi Input Multi Output) Communication

Challenge: Conventional formation keeping requires thrusters. Small satellites have limited onboard resources.

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 …

Bcon-2 Operations And Pre-Flight Testing, Kenny Blanton, Brayden Kuchenbacker, Dan White

Small Satellite Conference

As part of the Dream Big Phase I mission, Valpo Space Program’s (VSP) satellite BCON-2 is a 0.5U ThinSat CubeSat designed by NearSpace Launch (NSL).

Dimensions: 0.5U ThinSat (10 cm × 10 cm × 5 cm).

• Comms/MCU Board: STM-32 based PocketQube satellite board that utilizes an AX5043 transceiver to manage VHF/UHF radio communications and subsystem connectivity via CAN bus.
• ADCS Payload: Collaborative flight of the University of Luxembourg’s (UniLu) Space Systems Engineering (SpaSys) system; features their PCB-embedded tri-axial magnetorquer coils Attitude Determination and Control System (ADCS).
• Square Koch Fractal Antenna: The RF systems remain inactive for this mission due to …

An Inexpensive, Open, And Extensible Hardware-In-The-Loop Cubesat Test And Simulation Infrastructure, Andrew Greenberg, Glenn Lebrasseur, Max Eltzroth, Rose Edington, Anna Meneely, Maxwell Millar

Small Satellite Conference

We have developed an inexpensive, open source, and extensible hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) test and simulation system to allow even small CubeSat teams to dramatically improve their testing infrastructure to increase reliability during flight.