Aerospace Engineering Commons^™

Nebulous: Applying Genetic Algorithms To Design Next-Generation Satellites For Drag Resilience, Rick Marcusen, Adrian Bryant, Julie Rolla, Max Foreback, Evan Imata, Emily Dolson, Kyle Helson, Marcin Pilinski, Anselmo C. Pontes, Jonathan Sy, Joey Wagner, Scott Palo

Small Satellite Conference

Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO) is a region of space between ~150-400 km that is becoming increasingly valuable for operators of large satellite constellations. VLEO's proximity to the Earth enables improved technical performance, such as higher surface image resolution and lower communications latency, as well as less expensive and more frequent launch opportunities. However, one significant disadvantage to operating in VLEO is the increased effects of aerodynamic drag, which can reduce a mission's lifetime and decrease a spacecraft's position accuracy. To address this, we introduce NEBULOUS, a genetic algorithm-based design tool that evolves spacecraft geometries through generations of mutation and …

Progressing From High-Altitude Balloon Validation To Orbit: Establishing Cubesat Capability In Nevada Through Incremental Design, Kylee Brahma, Leandro Araiza, Christian Ługowski

Small Satellite Conference

UNLV ATLAS-1—Analysis of Temperature and Radiation in Low-Earth Orbit for Analog Studies—is a student-led 1U CubeSat mission at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. The project uses an incremental approach, progressing from mock-satellite prototypes to high-altitude balloon flights and, ultimately, orbital deployment. By increasing system fidelity alongside student experience, UNLV ATLAS-1 aims to create a repeatable pathway for CubeSat development in Nevada and beyond.

Relative Position Determination For Satellite Formation Flying Using Radio-Wave Strength Considering Antenna Deformation, Sho Watanabe, Takaya Inamori, Yosuke Kawabata

Small Satellite Conference

Background:

Increasing use of formation flying in space missions:

• Requires formation establishment and maintenance
• Relative orbit determination is essential

Conventional Methods

• Camera
• Laser
• GNSS

Large size and mass are mostly required

Depends on the orbit and satellite attitude

Using received signal strength can overcome these limitations.

The Effects Of Space On Pharmacology And Traditional Medicine: A Review Of Current Literature And Its Potential Impacts On Space Therapeutics, Pratyush Majumdar

Small Satellite Conference

Astronauts in space commonly take medicine for sleep disorders, muscle aches, and other miscellaneous conditions. These medications are taken under the assumption that they will work in space comparable to their effect on Earth, but mounting evidence is emerging to demonstrate that this is not the case. Using the principles of pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, there are many physiological changes that alter how a drug is processed, changing their therapeutic effect. As mission times get longer, there is a heavier need to understand these changes and compensate for them in order to keep astronauts safe.

Thermal Analysis Of Small Satellites, Devansh Patel

Small Satellite Conference

Accurate thermal modeling is essential to spacecraft design, ensuring components remain within operational temperatures throughout orbit. This study develops and validates thermal models of increasing complexity to gain practical experience in spacecraft thermal analysis.

The GRIFEX mission is a 3U CubeSat launched in a 634 km circular polar orbit by the Michigan Exploration Laboratory (MXL). The CubeSat observed both 90° and 0° beta angle orbits during its mission, making it optimal for comparing thermal analysis results for small satellites in low Earth orbit.

Design And Development Of A Miniaturized Helmholtz Cage For Cubesat Adcs Testing, Karla Sever, Marko Bosiljevac

Small Satellite Conference

• Magnetic field generation and compensation are essential for laboratory testing of an attitude determination and control system (ADCS) for small satellites. Since commercial magnetic test facilities are often unavailable or impractical for university laboratories, such setups are typically developed in-house. A controlled magnetic environment allows for reliable magnetometer characterization, magnetorquer testing, and evaluation of attitude control algorithms, enabling repeatable ADCS experiments under well-defined conditions.
• At our university, a CubeSat-class ADCS is being developed from the ground up by students, with a focus on hands on hardware development and experimental validation. The current ADCS prototype includes magnetic sensors, custom-developed magnetorquers, and …

Design And Testing Of A Compact Hold-Down And Release System For A Formation Flying Micro Satellite; Seirios, Takahiro Takano, Yoshihisa Shimada, Takahiro Yamazaki, Masaki Ito, Itsuki Fujiwara, Satoshi Ikari, Shinichi Nakasuka

Small Satellite Conference

SEIRIOS(Space Experiment of IR Interferometric Observation Satellites)

• Demonstrates accurate formation flying (FF) technology with three microsatellites (two10 kg-class and one 60 kg-class)

Hold-Down and Release System (HDRS)

1. Retain the Deputy-Sats on the Chief -Sat during the launch.
2. Enable Interferometric observation in the docking configuration with no structural deformation.
3. Enable separation of the Deputy-Sats in orbit.
4. Avoid collision during separation

Launch Load Condition(Tentative)

The response amplification factor within the Chief-Sat was empirically set as below.

Development Of A Digital Electronic Framework To Manage High Power Systems In Small Satellite Missions, Mariel Serra, Rami Kandela, Bryan Johnston-Lemke, Robert E. Zee

Small Satellite Conference

• As small spacecraft payloads increase in complexity, they introduce the need for higher capacity and reliable power systems.
• The use of radiation tested automotive-grade components offer low-costs, however these parts are less suited to increased power demands, exhibiting signs of on-orbit latch-up.
• A re-design of a Modular Power System’s digital framework is proposed to support more spacecraft loads with minimal computational stress on the electronic processing units.

Distributed Avionics As A Foundational Architecture For Cubesat Constellations And Swarms, Aaron S. Swagei, Ali Guarneros-Luna

Small Satellite Conference

Motivation

CubeSat constellations and swarms require spacecraft that can tolerate subsystem faults without relying exclusively on a single centralized flight computer. Distributing sensing, control, and fault-management authority can improve containment and enable graceful degradation.

Objective

Develop and experimentally evaluate a distributed CubeSat avionics architecture in which subsystem nodes retain local fault-management authority while an F´-based OBC provides mission-level coordination.

The FlatSat is used as a representative spacecraft-level building block for future constellation and swarm architectures.

History Of Aggiesat6: An Undergraduate Mission From Concept To Operations, Garrett M. Stevenson, John F. Connolly

Small Satellite Conference

AggieSat Laboratory (AGSL) is a student-run space vehicle development organization that trains students in systems engineering through hands-on experience in the design, building, testing, and operation of space and space-related systems.

AGSL currently supports 107 members, all but three (3) of which are undergraduates, across eight (8) projects, including an underclassmen shadowing program.

AGSL supports the initiative and learning capabilities of undergraduate members through peer mentorship and the institutionalization of knowledge across its projects to achieve success through a variety of projects.

Integrated Optical/Body-Dynamics Simulations For Pointing, Acquisition And Tracking For The Pulse-A Mission, Juan Ignacio Prieto Asbun, Elizabeth Rosario, Jiayang Xu, Catherine Todd, Robert Pitu, Tian Zhong

Small Satellite Conference

PULSE-A is the University of Chicago’s student-led 3U CubeSat mission to demonstrate a space-to-ground optical downlink at a data rate of 1 to 10 Mbps using circular polarization shift keying (CPolSK).

To avoid costly and ineffective hardware-in-the-loop simulations, we instead present software-in-the-loop simulations designed to qualify our optical and PAT systems. This allows for simulations of the coupled optical systems that include closed-loop corrections and body pointing errors.

Sailing To The Stars Iss Experiment: Results And Conclusions From Light Sail Deployments In Microgravity, Verena Padres, Parishee Bajaj, Venkata Chalamalasetty, Claire Kim, Joshua Umansky-Castro, Dionna Parina, Gabriella Elcsics-Gonzalez, Cameron Goddard, Ethan Francolla, Mason Peck, Andrew Filo, Alex Burke, Olivia Gámez Holzhaus, Heath Mills, Christopher Kelly

Small Satellite Conference

Sailing to the Stars is a mission to test the deployment of free-flying light sails on the International Space Station (ISS). The objective is to understand how different deployer designs affect the stability of both the CubeSat Deployer and the light sail during and after the deployment event. Data from the IMU onboard the deployer and video footage from wall-mounted cameras are used to analyze these dynamics. The findings shall inform the design of future missions that employ this free-flying ChipSat-sail architecture.

The hardware launched with Crew-11 on August 1^st, 2025. Nicole Ayers conducted the experiment on August …

Lighting Up The Moon: A Scheduling Framework For Cislunar Space Based Solar Power Orchestration, Vaibhav Bhosale, Andrew Woo, Ada Gavrilovska, Christopher R. Valenta, Ketan Bhardwaj

Small Satellite Conference

Surviving the Lunar Night

• 14 Earth day lunar nights
• More batteries, more mass, higher cost

Generalized Attitude Control For Small Spacecraft, Patrick Mckeen, Niclas Scheuer, Kerri Cahoy

Small Satellite Conference

Published controllers are derived for one actuator set, pointing goal, orbit, and disturbance model. Porting one means reproducing the paper, validating the implementation, then changing hardware and mission assumptions together.

Concept Of Operation Logic And Implementation Expectations For Multimode Propulsion Technology Demonstration Missions, Logan Thompson, Michael Harrigan, Theresa Sandborn, Victoria Coverstone, Joshua L. Rovey

Small Satellite Conference

Traditional single-mode propulsion systems are typically optimized for either high-thrust, short-duration maneuvers (chemical propulsion) or high-efficiency, low-thrust operations (electric propulsion). For CubeSats, which are limited by mass, volume, power, and system complexity, carrying separate propulsion systems for each mission phase is often impractical. Multimode propulsion systems overcome this limitation by combining chemical and electric propulsion within a shared architecture, allowing a single spacecraft to perform both rapid maneuvers and efficient long-duration orbit maintenance.

Demonstrating a multimode propulsion system requires more than operating two propulsion modes on the same spacecraft. Shared propellant, feed systems, thermal interactions, power usage, and transitions …

Ground-Based Magnetic Attitude Determination For Low-Cost Cubesat Missions, Johnny Mccaskill, Evan Jellison, Jackson Holden, Blagoy Rangelov

Small Satellite Conference

This work presents the development and validation of a low-cost attitude determination approach for small satellites operating in low Earth orbit using only magnetometer data. The proposed method leverages measurements of Earth’s magnetic field collected by onboard magnetometers in conjunction with orbital information processed on the ground. By comparing observed magnetic field vectors with reference values generated from the World Magnetic Model, the system estimates the satellite’s orientation with minimal onboard processing requirements. The resulting attitude solution is then transmitted back to the spacecraft for potential use in attitude control or mission planning.

Because all computation occurs on the ground, …

Long-Term Software-Defined Formation Flying And Its Application To Space Mimo Communications, Takaya Inamori, Keita Tanaka, Kiyoshi Kinefuchi, Shigeru Sunada, Yousuke Kawabata, Ayumu Nono, Takumi Noro, Yukihisa Otani, Norihide Miyamura, Eiji Okamoto, Yuma Abe, Yoshimi Fujii, Hiroyuki Tsuji, Takuya Okura, Rei Kawashima, Takuto Ogawa, Tomoyuki Miyashita

Small Satellite Conference

Formation flying of multiple small satellites is expected to enable novel space missions that cannot be achieved by a single satellite. Small sized satellites are strongly affected by environmental disturbances and have strict constraints on mass, volume, and power. This study focuses on characteristics that become prominent as satellites are miniaturized, such as the increased influence of space environment and enhanced interactions among onboard components. By utilizing these effects, the research aims to realize propellant-less, software-defined formation flying. The proposed technologies are applied to space MIMO (multiple input multiple output) communications, in which communication capacity is improved by controlling the …

Toward Trainable Ai Agents For Satellite Operations, Haley Calderon, Vaibhav Bhosale, Ketan Bhardwaj, Ada Gavrilovska

Small Satellite Conference

Low Earth orbit is increasingly crowded, and a growing share of it is flown by universities and small operators. These teams must detect and respond to on-orbit anomalies with far less staff, expertise, and tooling than large operators, and a single missed anomaly can end a mission. We present COMET, a ground-based operator agent that helps a small team both detect anomalies and diagnose them. COMET pairs a learned detector with a retrieval-augmented diagnosis stage. An LSTM autoencoder flags anomalous telemetry windows, and a language model explains each one against the mission’s own documentation, procedures, and prior operational records. Because …

Bit-Flip Sensitivity And Selective Fp32 Protection For Onboard Neural Networks In Flight Software: In-Place Secded Healing Of An Fp32 Weight Buffer Inside Nasa Cfs, Ryan Goodman, Carson Cramer, Braden Eichmeier, Emily Gerber, Christopher Roscoe

Small Satellite Conference

Smallsat missions increasingly deploy neural networks on COTS processors. In orbit, a charged particle striking such a device can flip a single bit of memory, a single event upset (SEU). An upset in a network weight raises no fault condition: the network continues to run, returns incorrect values, and the control loop downstream acts on them. 

The standard cFS response to memory corruption is process restart, which interrupts service and discards runtime state.

In-Transit Debris Remediation: Dual-Use Logistics For Sustainable Cislunar Smallsat Constellations, Wanjiku Chebet Kanjumba

Small Satellite Conference

A Debris Crisis Meets A Logistics Boom: Low- and high-Earth orbit keep accumulating debris faster than the atmosphere can clear it, even as NASA's Artemis and CLPS programs establish routine trans-lunar traffic. The 2009 Iridium-Cosmos collision and later anti-satellite tests proved that single fragmentation events can irreversibly degrade critical orbital shells, raising the specter of Kessler Syndrome. 

• 46,600+ objects tracked on orbit today, with ~130 million sub-cm fragments (ESA, 2025)
• $500K-$2M cost per kilogram for dedicated ADR, fiscally intractable at system scale
• 5-10 / yr large objects must be removed to stabilize LEO (Liou & Johnson)

The Unit-Economics Problem: Purpose-built …

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

Autonomous Microelectronics See Payload For Validating Terrestrial Predictions In Space, Michael A. Blacconiere, Isaac Hudson, John W. Burgoon, Terrance Sacks, Spencer Westfall, Sajal Islam, Davidson Juhke, George Randel, Jared Harvey, Merek Chertkow, Daniel Loveless

Small Satellite Conference

The radiation environment in space is complex and time-varying, causing major risks for microelectronic applications. Terrestrial radiation sources are used to characterize devices before missions to predict in-orbit error rates. However, these predictions are rarely validated in deployment. The payload, designed by IU CREATE and The Radiation Team, the IUB-SAT-1, integrates IU’s RadFX-IC and commercial SRAMs with well-characterized terrestrial radiation responses into a modular payload to collect on-orbit radiation-response data. Results will refine radiation error-rate models and improves confidence in deploying advanced microelectronics to radiation-rich space environments.

Experimental Assessment Of A 15-N Nitrous Oxide And Ethane Thruster For Premixed And Non-Premixed Operations, Eunwoo Jung, Juwon Kim, Eunkwang Lee, Keunseok Lee, Yonggu Kim, Minwoo Lee

Small Satellite Conference

• Nitrous Oxide (N₂O) has attracted significant attention as an oxidizer for next-generation small scale propulsion systems due to its non-toxic and high vapor pressure, which enables self-pressurization.  
• By combining N₂O with hydrocarbon fuels, propulsion systems can be operated either as bipropellant systems or as premixed propulsion systems.  
• N₂O-based premixed propellants, commonly known as NOFB (Nitrous Oxide Fuel Blend), require only a single propellant tank, similar to monopropellant systems, resulting in a simplified system architecture; however, their high susceptibility to flashback necessitates the incorporation of dedicated flashback prevention devices.  
• The objective of this study is …

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.

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. 

The Base Got Hit: Interpersonal Communication Strategies In High-Stress Space Projects, Allison E. Barnes, Avery G. Barriga, John F. Connolly

Small Satellite Conference

The AggieSat Laboratory (AGSL) is a student-driven laboratory with 17 years of space systems experience and flight heritage. As AGSL prepares to launch several space systems over the next three years, reflecting on lessons learned from past projects is critical to improving future reliability and execution. This survey analyzes communication dynamics in past CubeSat and ISS payload projects, specifically within the high-stress phases of Assembly, Integration, and Test (AI&T) and Mission Operations, where a combination of young engineers and high-stakes decision-making can often lead to compounding, avoidable technical anomalies.

This survey identifies specific interpersonal strategies to mitigate human error, including …

Vision-Based Pose Estimation Of A Low-Inertia Robotic Capture Arm, Dane Groves, Willem Jordaan

Small Satellite Conference

The development of CubeSat-integrated robotic arms has expanded the possibilities for In-Orbit Assembly, Repair, and Servicing (OARS). A low-inertia robotic capture arm has been designed previously using remote actuation¹. In the context of CubeSats, this allows heavy actuators to be placed in the base of the CubeSat and lightweight, slender links can be connected to form an arm. This design, depicted in Figure 1, allows for a robotic arm with a low moment of inertia.

The limited 6.5 mm link profile prevents the integration of high-resolution joint encoders, motivating the use of an alternative state estimation technique. This …

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 …

A Comparative Analysis Of Radio Frequency And Optical Inter-Satellite Link Communications For Leo Mega-Constellations, Alexa Houck, Suryansh Aryan, Kevin Schroeder, Samantha Kenyon

Small Satellite Conference

SpaceNet design  

Software-based testbed for simulating large satellite networks, specifically LEO-based constellations to analyze network behavior, connectivity, routing, and overall communication.  

• Phase one focuses on connectivity and routing: Given the topology and link availability over time, how does my network behave? 
• Phase two focuses on network emulation: Given the topology and link availability over time, how does my network behave? 

Arcsecond-Level Pointing Accuracy In A Cubesat: Development And Verification Of The High-Precision Pointing System For The Cubespec Mission, Leonardo Peri

Small Satellite Conference

Mission and objectives 

CubeSpec is a 12U CubeSat mission designed to demonstrate high-resolution stellar spectroscopy from a small, low-cost space platform. 

Its scientific objectives require the payload line-of-sight to remain stable within a few arcseconds. This is beyond the capability of conventional CubeSat Attitude Determination & Control Systems (ADCS). 

To meet this challenge, CubeSpec uses a dual-stage pointing architecture: the spacecraft ADCS provides coarse body pointing, while a High-Precision Pointing Platform applies fast, precise corrections directly to the payload line-of-sight.