Aerospace Engineering Commons^™

Space & Defense Vol. 17 No. 1 Front Matter, Space & Defense

Space and Defense

No abstract provided.

Space & Defense Volume 17 Issue 1 Summer 2026 (Whole Issue), Space & Defense

Space and Defense

No abstract provided.

In-Orbit Demonstration Of The Vyom-2u: A Green Monopropellant-Based Propulsion System Onboard Isro's Pslv C60 Poem-4, Ashtesh Kumar, Tushar Jadav, Prashant Singh, Rajat Kumar, Sajo George, Sivakami S., Rohit Shanbhag, Neel Gharat, Shubham Singh, Henry Sam, Suman Vadla

Small Satellite Conference

Vyom 2U is a compact 2U green monopropellant propulsion system designed to deliver a total impulse of 1700 Ns. At Beginning-of-Life (BOL) conditions, corresponding to a tank pressure of 24 bar, the thruster can deliver up to 1.1 N with a specific impulse of approximately 250 s, while requiring a peak electrical power of 15 W. At an operating pressure of 14 bar, the propulsion system delivers a thrust of approximately 0.67 N with a specific impulse of about 238 s. This operating point was deliberately selected for in-orbit operations to maintain sub-newton thrust levels compatible with the attitude control …

Payload Selection To Correlate Shielding Performance With Molecular Structure And Elemental Composition For Rosisat: The Radiation Orbital Shielding Investigation Satellite, Chase Patterson, Jacob L. Blanton, Kylie Nager

Beyond: Undergraduate Research Journal

Exposure to space weather in the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) environment poses significant challenges to both the integrity and longevity of orbital hardware, as well as the health of astronauts, driving the necessity for improved means of radiation shielding for future missions. With a 1U CubeSat formfactor, ROSISat is a planned LEO mission that aims to characterize the radiation shielding capabilities of seven candidate materials: ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene, boron nitride, carbon nanotubes, boron nitride nanotubes with polyethylene fibers, carbon fiber reinforced composite, and aerographene, as well as two control materials: aluminum 6061 and ep33. By comparing the shielding performance …

Comparison Between Low-Powered Gridded Ion Thruster And Hall Effect Thruster Operation For Small Satellite Applications, William Brabston, Kuei-Ru Chien, Michael Jaroonwit, Kevin Berg

Small Satellite Conference

In recent years, the small satellite space economy has experienced unprecedented growth with the emergence of low-cost dedicated and rideshare launch services. The resulting proliferation of small satellites creates a high demand for low cost, efficient electric propulsion systems to perform orbital maneuvers. Hall effect thrusters (HET) and gridded ion thrusters (GIT) are the two primary electric propulsion platforms for small sat applications, and they offer distinct advantages and disadvantages. Stellant, formerly Hughes, Boeing, and L3 Harris, is developing a lowpower GIT to meet these mission needs.

HETs produce thrust primarily through a highly coupled ionization and acceleration process, whereas …

Multi-Paradigm Contact Scheduling — Combining Automation And Flexibility In Gsaas Operations, Jake Urbanek, Giovanni Zanotti, Stefan Vlad Tudor, Giovanni Pandolfi Bortoletto

Small Satellite Conference

BACKGROUND

Ground segment operations must keep pace with increasingly demanding mission concepts of operation. For a GroundSegment-as-a-Service (GSaaS) provider, this means scheduling ground contacts against a diverse, often conflicting set of customer requirements, historically requiring bespoke scheduling logic. Leaf Line's baseline addresses this with two mechanisms: an automated Scheduler that computes guaranteed network-wide allocations 4 days ahead, and on-demand booking of unallocated capacity, first-come-first-served.

PROBLEM

Together, the baseline delivers strong service levels and network utilization, but two gaps emerged. The 4-day rolling horizon limits visibility into exact pass allocation beyond that window. And users needing specific pass times may find …

Enabling Earth Independent Navigation, Guidance And Control With The Autongc Flight Software Framework, Michael Romeo, Sun Hur-Diaz, Behnam Azimi, Sean Semper, Robert Pritchett, James Marshall, Liam Greenlee, Joseph Patton, Steven Slegel, Carl De Vries, Benjamin Leser, Andrew Liounis

Small Satellite Conference

autoNGC is a framework for enabling onboard autonomous Navigation, Guidance and Control. Encompassing flight software, ground system software, reference hardware platforms, and simulation/analysis tools, autoNGC is designed to be an end-to-end solution to enabling onboard navigation, guidance and control with minimal ground operator supervision.

Implemented as a suite of apps for NASA’s core Flight System (cFS), autoNGC is designed with a modular architecture, allowing it to be customized to meet the needs of nearly any mission. This modular architecture enables a high-degree of reusability, allowing autoNGC to be rapidly implemented on new missions.

autoNGC is built on Goddard-developed software products, …

Feasibility Study Of A 3d-Printed Thermally Insulated Battery Compartment For Cubesats, Michal Kolodynski, Konrad Kij, Michal Radawiec

Small Satellite Conference

Poster presented at the 2026 Small Satellite Conference

Hitechsat-1: A Rapidly Integrable 3u Platform For University Cubesat Missions, Seho Kim, Miguel Nunes, Mohammed Irfan Rashed, Lance Yoneshige, Gabriel Guerrero, Scott Ginoza, Piper Kline, Luke Flynn

Small Satellite Conference

HITechSat (HTS) is a student-led CubeSat program at the Hawaiʻi Space Flight Laboratory, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. HTS-1 is the first mission in the series: a 3U CubeSat deploying from the International Space Station (ISS) in mid 2027.

Layer 3 Switching, Todd R. Zatorski

Small Satellite Conference

Poster presented at the 2026 Small Satellite Conference

From Estimation To Certainty: Enhancing Smallsat Constellation Replenishment Planning With Physics-Based Solar Forecasting, Scott W. Mcintosh, Katherine Monson, Carolyn Belle, Chris Habib, Brianna Aubin

Small Satellite Conference

Poster Presented at the 2026 Small Satellite Conference

First Generation Of Project A.S.P.I.R.E. – A 1u Cubesat Mission For Technology Demonstration And Student Involvement In New Zealand, Shuanghui Zhao, Shunxing Shi, Kristen Lian, Rose Peens-Hough, Arami Peens-Hough, Changrui Wang, Joowon Hwang, Jerry Sun, Edward Sun

Small Satellite Conference

MOTIVATION

A feasibility study conducted at an Auckland secondary school in December 2024 found strong interest in satellite-related learning. Following an outreach presentation, 63 students (Majority aged 15 - 18) completed a questionnaire, with an average interest rating of 4.86/5. The most popular subjects were Orbital Physics, Mathematics, Mechanical Engineering, and Electrical Engineering (fig. 1).

Investigation Of A Demonstration Mission For Three-Dimensional Remote Sensing Using “Structured Radio Waves” With Orbital Angular Momentum, Hisatoshi Kimura, Tsukasa Funane, Yosuke Tanabe, Miki Yonehara, Makoto Ito, Keigo Nakamura, Yasuyuki Miyazaki, Satoshi Ikari, Shinichi Nakasuka, Koichi Watanabe

Small Satellite Conference

Background

• As a new radar technology for remote sensing, three-dimensional observation methods using electromagnetic waves with spatial phase distributions are being studied to obtain azimuth-angle information in addition to conventional radar measurements^[1].
• We are considering the use of “structured radio waves”, which are formed by superposing two radio waves carrying orbital angular momentum (OAM), as radio waves with spatial phase distributions^[2,3].

Purpose

• Evaluate the effects of satellite position and attitude errors on azimuth-angle estimation and clarify the requirements for a demonstration mission. 
• Assess the feasibility and provide recommendations.

Launch Vehicle And Ground Infrastructure Development For Zero Launch Systems, Masahiro Kinoshita

Small Satellite Conference

ZERO is a two-stage, orbital-class launch vehicle designed to provide flexible, affordable, and localized space access.

Microsat For Refueling Mission Demonstrator In Vleo, Gyusun Kim

Small Satellite Conference

Recently, active research and technological development have been conducted on various mission application in VLEO(Very Low Earth Orbit) using MicroSat. However, the limited payload accommodation capability of MicroSat poses significant challenges for high optical resolution commercial or national-level practical missions. In contrast, satellites of 2,000 kg in size have performed well in low-Earth orbit for the very high optical resolution missions required so far (e.g., 30 cm-level resolution optical satellites) in 450 km ~ 600 km orbit altitude, but in order to meet the continuously increasing resolution requirements in the future optical imagery market (e.g., 15 cm-level resolution), the optical …

Mission Orientated Flight Software Development: Cubestep, Tirth Thakkar, Howard Lee, Viren Kumar, Maranda Laws, Shridhi Seth, Marco Maggia, Navid Nakhjiri

Small Satellite Conference

Small satellite teams often develop flight software and mission operations separately, leading to software behaviors that drift out of sync with ground procedures. To fix this, we present a co-design approach that directly links mission goals and operational procedures to the onboard flight software architecture. Demonstrated on the CubeSTEP-Cerberus mission using NASA’s F′ framework and FreeRTOS, our system maps mission intent into five constrained software states (Initialization, Safe, Idle, Experiment, and Transmit) guarded by automated health checks. This co-design strategy ensures the spacecraft acts autonomously to preserve its goals while strictly maintaining operator control over critical decisions.

Nexus-1 - A Multi-Mission Maneuverable Spacecraft For Dynamic Space Operations, Kieran Wilson, Gavin Petit, Ghonhee Lee, Andrew Sabovik

Small Satellite Conference

Sustained Space Maneuver enabled by dual-use multipurpose servicers

• Rideshare compatible (ESPA-Grande Class)
• Energy-dense propulsion for flexible mission profiles (LEO-GEO-XGEO)
• On-demand services for unprepared space vehicles
• Inspect, Refuel, Upgrade, Reposition, Life-Extension, Deorbit
• Modular capabilities and deployables
• Common carriage enabled by government reference architecture
• Fuel & Interface-agnostic modular refueling

Spot: A Cubesat Mission For High-Resolution Monitorig Of Anthropogenic Sulfur Emissions, Carla Roesch, Colleen Golja, James Custer, Catherine Ember, Jerome Woodwark, Andrew Matheson, Joshua Vande Hey, Sonymol Vk, Steven Heer, Zixuan Gao, Tim Trent

Small Satellite Conference

Resolving individual industrial sources of SO₂ to constrain aerosol forcing — one of the largest remaining uncertainties in Earth's energy budget.

Capstone Demonstration Of Real-Time Autonomous Navigation Using One-Way Radiometric Measurements, Benjamin Leser, Sun Hur-Diaz, Anne Long, Carl De Vries, Nathan Esantsi, Liam Greenlee, Michael Romeo, Nathan Stacey

Small Satellite Conference

autoNGC performed the first ever onboard, real-time spacecraft navigation using one-way forward direct-with-Earth (DWE) radiometric measurements at the Moon

Comparative Analysis Of Reaction Wheels And Control Moment Gyroscopes For High-Capacity Orbital Data Centers In Sun-Pointing Mission Profiles, Chih Ta Wu, Po Hsun Yen, Jen Hao Cheng, Kai Kuo Liao, Shang Jung Lee

Small Satellite Conference

• Orbital data centers (ODCs) are moving from concept to near-term engineering: Starcloud (5 GW), Meta / Overview Energy (1 GW SSP), SpaceX (up to 1M-satellite FCC filing).
• Multi-kW to GW-class compute demands solar arrays of unprecedented scale → extreme inertia and disturbance torques.
• Can Reaction Wheels (RWs) vs Control Moment Gyroscopes (CMGs) hold an ODC in a sun-nadir pointing profile?

Robust Learning-Based Guidance For Close Proximity Operation Scenarios, Luis Sanchez, Charlotte Crawshaw, Reuben Lynch, Natalia Bajnokova, Murray Ireland, Hazel Quibell, Callum Wilson, Lucy Donnell, Maura Allan, Kevin Worral, Matteo Ceriotti

Small Satellite Conference

ROC-ML is a European Space Agency (ESA) funded project led by Craft Prospect in collaboration with University of Glasgow. The project leverages Machine Learning (ML) approaches to augment the performance of robust motion planning in space applications. The developed method of spacecraft motion planning must be suitably computationally efficient to be deployed on low SWAP space hardware.

Toward Public Access To On-Orbit Propulsion Data From Equuleus: Preparing Real Flight Data For Community Use, Hiroyuki Koizumi, Isamu Moriai, Hokuto Sekine, Keita Nishii, Mariko Akiyama, Shintaro Nakajima, Yosuke Kawabata, Yasuho Ataka, Shunichiro Nomura, Ryota Fuse, Ryu Funase

Small Satellite Conference

EQUULEUS is a 6U lunar exploration CubeSat, jointly developed and operated by the University of Tokyo and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). It was launched in November 2022 by the Space Launch System (SLS) into a lunar transfer orbit and achieved insertion into a trajectory toward the Earth–Moon Lagrange region through multiple lunar flybys using its onboard water resistojet propulsion system AQUARIUS. The EQUULEUS primary mission is the demonstration of trajectory control technology in the Sun-Earth-Moon region for the first time by a nano-spacecraft.

Zerodur®: Comprehensive Data Enables The Reliability Of Evidence-Based Design, Dustin Ruth, Florian Gollier, Jesse Bonfeld, Dustin Ruth, Janina Krieg, Thomas Westerhoff, Tony Hull, Jacqueline Caraballo

Small Satellite Conference

ZERODUR® is a glass-ceramic formulated for high-performance optics under imperfect temperature control. Crystallites in a glass matrix balance expansion: crystals shrink while residual glass expands, preserving geometry at fine scale.

This yields the lowest passive thermal response of any optical material-enabling high-contrast, high-resolution, low-scatter imaging and minimal transmission leakage for SmallSat telescopes.

Advancements In The Ma61c-Smallsat Hardware Board: Elevating Modular Adcs From Trl 5 To Trl 6, Saish Sridharan

Small Satellite Conference

LESSONS LEARNT AND DESIGN JUSTIFICATION

Output from previous phase

• RS422/RS485 Tranceiver: The LCT2865-based interface failed testing and should be redesigned for the next phase.
• Shielded Cabling: Properly grounded shielded cables eliminated JTAG communication instability.

Experimental Leo Cubesat Mission With Pnt And Communication Payloads, Chung-Sheng Lin, Chi-Kuang Chao, Yu-Xiang Lin

Small Satellite Conference

Background: The deployment of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) mega-constellations (e.g., Starlink, OneWeb, Pulsar, IRIS) has driven interest in LEO-based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) solutions [1], either through dedicated payloads or signals-of-opportunity.

Objectives: This work proposes a CubeSat mission aimed at verifying integrated LEO communication and positioning capabilities over Taiwan.

Methodology & Mission Plan:

- Constellation: One to four CubeSats will be deployed. Real-time positioning will be tested during simultaneous four-satellite visibility over Taiwan, while recorded-signal positioning will be used for partial constellations.

- Experiments: Dual-mode testing includes concurrent communication and positioning experiments, alongside communication-signal-based …

Revisit Performance Analysis Of Narsha Microsatellite Constellation For Point-Source Ghg Monitoring, Jinyoung Shin, Geuk-Nam Kim, Taemin Kim, Jaemin Hong, Joohee Lee, Marcin Badowski, Seongwhan Lee

Small Satellite Conference

Although microsatellite missions under 100 kg have demonstrated advanced capabilities in detecting localized CO2 and CH4 emissions, the effectiveness of these systems hinges on their spatial and temporal coverage and observation validity under diverse environmental conditions.

Factors such as solar zenith angle (SZA), viewing zenith angle (VZA), surface albedo, weather, and source persistence influence their performance.

Against this background, this study evaluates the spatial and temporal coverage performance of microsatellite-based GHG observation systems through numerical simulations incorporating environmental and instrumental conditions.

Water-Floating Experimental Validation Of Magnetic Decoupling Strategies For Electromagnetic Formation Flight Using Palm-Sized Satellites, Hideki Yoshikado, Atsushi Noda, Daisuke Wakao, Takuya Koiso, Masaru Ishida, Shogo Saito, Korehito Suzaki, Juichi Takahashi, Yuta Yamaguchi

Small Satellite Conference

Goal: a distributed space antenna built from 10,000+ palm-sized satellites, operating together as a single phased-array antenna for direct-to-device communication from orbit [1, 2].

Electromagnetic Formation Flight (EMFF) generates magnetic forces and torques between satellites by controlling their coil currents, enabling propellant-free control of relative position and attitude [3, 4, 5].

However, every coil interacts with every other coil, so unwanted pairs must be magnetically decoupled. Multi-satellite ground validation is also difficult: air-bearing facilities limit the number of units and the test area [6, 7].

This work presents a water-floating testbed and a ten-satellite experiment comparing two magnetic decoupling strategies.

Autongc: One Small High-Fidelity Testbed, One Giant Leap For Autonomous Gn&C At The Moon, Sean Semper, Justin Clavette, Katherine Fowee Gasaway, Hossein Mohammadkhan, Nickalas Cason, Liam Greenlee, Joseph Patton, Grant Ryden, Behnam Azimi, Michael Romeo, Sun Hur Diaz

Small Satellite Conference

Objective:  

• Sustained human presence at Moon/Mars requires autonomous navigation  
• Reduce dependency on human-in-the-loop ground control  
• Enable onboard rapid GN&C in cislunar environment  
• Support multiple measurement types for robust navigation 

A Comparative Analysis Of Sensing Methodologies During Rendezvous & Proximity Operations, Tyler Ritz, Ian Silverberg, Axel Garcia, Giovanni Lavezzi

Small Satellite Conference

The result: Actionable state estimates in seconds not hours

Fusing a small passive imager with a state-of-the-art ranging payload, such as Peregrine Space Corp’s CORVID 12U and 3U variants, collapses the time to a 10 m relative-navigation gate (1σ RSS uncertainty in 3-axes) by two to three orders of magnitude versus angles-only navigation. While ingested measurement types differ across scenarios, the CONOPS remains unchanged. Active ranging replaces hours of parallax inference with direct measurements.

From Model To Mission: A Model-Based Method For Managing Spacecraft Ai&T Activities, Andy Young, Dan Christensen

Small Satellite Conference

Assembly, Integration, and Test (AI&T) is one of the most complex phases of spacecraft development, requiring engineers to coordinate interconnected procedures, specialized equipment, personnel, and evolving schedules. Traditional AI&T planning relies on separate diagrams, schedules, spreadsheets, and documents that must be manually synchronized, increasing engineering effort and the risk of inconsistencies. Meanwhile, many Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) methodologies effectively end before design implementation. We present a methodology that addresses these challenges by extending MBSE practices to provide a single source of truth for AI&T information.