Astrodynamics Commons^™

Development Of A Research Spacecraft Test-Bed With Implementation Of Control Laws To Compensate Undesired Dynamics, Yomary Angélica Betancur Vesga

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

The development of research spacecraft systems has a significant impact on the preparation and simulation of future space missions. Hardware, software and operation procedures can be adequately tested, validated and verified before they are deployed for the actual mission. In this thesis, a spacecraft vehicle test-bed named Extreme Access System (EASY) was developed. EASY aims at supporting validation and verification of guidance, navigation and control algorithms. Description of EASY spacecraft systems, sub-systems and integration is presented in this thesis along with an analysis of results from numerical simulation and actual implementation of control laws. An attitude control architecture based on …

Astrodynamics Of The Next Generation Space Weather Prediction Mission, Mark Herring

Doctoral Dissertations and Master's Theses

Accurate prediction of the solar wind properties, interplanetary magnetic field direction and various space weather phenomena becomes ever more important as our dependence on Earth orbiting spacecraft increases. Different solar wind drivers can lead both to enhancements and losses of relativistic electrons in the outer radiation belts, thus posing a major risk to satellites. To further our understanding of the Sun’s impact on the near Earth space environment, as well as to provide predictive capabilities, a mission placing monitoring satellites in key orbits in the inner Solar System is being proposed. As part of that effort, the possibility of using …

Performance Enhancement And Characterization Of An Electromagnetic Railgun, Paul M. Gilles

Master's Theses

Collision with orbital debris poses a serious threat to spacecraft and astronauts. Hypervelocity impacts resulting from collisions mean that objects with a mass less than 1g can cause mission-ending damage to spacecraft. A means of shielding spacecraft against collisions is necessary. A means of testing candidate shielding methods for their efficacy in mitigating hypervelocity impacts is therefore also necessary. Cal Poly’s Electromagnetic Railgun was designed with the goal of creating a laboratory system capable of simulating hypervelocity (≥ 3 km/s) impacts. Due to several factors, the system was not previously capable of high-velocity (≥ 1 km/s) tests. A deficient projectile …

Navigational Feasibility Of Flyby / Impact Missions To Interstellar Objects, Declan Moore Mages

Master's Theses

In October 2017, the first interstellar object, designated 1I/2017 U1 and more commonly referred to as Oumuamua, was detected passing through our solar system by the Pan-STARRS telescope, followed recently by the detection of 2I/Borisov in August 2019. These detections came much sooner than thought possible, and have redefined our understanding of the population of interstellar objects. With the construction of the next generation of powerful observatories, future detections are estimated to occur as frequently as two per year, and while there is significant scientific understanding to be gained from observing these objects remotely, a spacecraft sent to intercept one …

An Afternoon With General Thomas P. Stafford, Stafford Air & Space Museum

Programs

An Afternoon with General Thomas P. Stafford

Sunday, May 19th, 2019 at 2:00 P.M. at the Weatherford High School Performing Arts Center.

Unless stated otherwise within this repository collection, all materials are shared under the following Creative Commons license: [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License].

Apollo 10, 50th Anniversary Gala, Stafford Air & Space Museum

Programs

The Apollo 10 50th Anniversary Gala was held on May 18th, 2019 at the Stafford Air & Space Museum in Weatherford, Oklahoma.

Unless stated otherwise within this repository collection, all materials are shared under the following Creative Commons license: [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License].

Visualization And Machine Learning Techniques For Nasa’S Em-1 Big Data Problem, Antonio P. Garza Iii, Jose Quinonez, Misael Santana, Nibhrat Lohia

SMU Data Science Review

In this paper, we help NASA solve three Exploration Mission-1 (EM-1) challenges: data storage, computation time, and visualization of complex data. NASA is studying one year of trajectory data to determine available launch opportunities (about 90TBs of data). We improve data storage by introducing a cloud-based solution that provides elasticity and server upgrades. This migration will save $120k in infrastructure costs every four years, and potentially avoid schedule slips. Additionally, it increases computational efficiency by 125%. We further enhance computation via machine learning techniques that use the classic orbital elements to predict valid trajectories. Our machine learning model decreases trajectory …

Satellite Conjunction Assessment Risk Analysis For “Dilution Region” Events: Issues And Operational Approaches, Matthew D. Hejduk

Space Traffic Management Conference

An important activity within Space Traffic Management is the detection and prevention of possible on-orbit collisions between space objects. The principal parameter for assessing collision likelihood is the probability of collision, which is widely accepted among conjunction assessment practitioners; but it possesses a known deficiency in that it can produce a false sense of safety when the orbital position uncertainties for the conjuncting objects are high. The probability of collision is said to be “diluted” in such a situation and to understate the possible risk; certain approaches have been recommended by researchers to provide (largely conservative) risk estimates and remediation …

Near Real Time Satellite Event Detection And Characterization With Remote Photoacoustic Signatures, Justin Spurbeck, Moriba K. Jah

Space Traffic Management Conference

Active satellites frequently maneuver to mitigate conjunctions and maintain nominal mission orbits. With an ever-growing Resident Space Object (RSO) population, the need to detect and predict any changes in active RSO trajectories has become increasingly important. There is typically a lag on the order of hours to days from time of maneuver to unmodeled dynamic event detection depending on the magnitude of the delta-v. For uncooperative objects, this detection lag poses a threat to other satellites. Implementing an active photoacoustic signature change detection methodology to detect and predict unmodeled dynamic events would reduce the overall conjunction risk and provide a …

Space Objects Classification And Characterization Via Deep Learning And Light Curves: Applications To Space Traffic Management, Roberto Furfaro, Richard Linares, Vishnu Reddy

Space Traffic Management Conference

Recent advancements in deep learning (e.g. Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN), Recurrent Neural networks (RNN)) have demonstrated impressive results in many practical and theoretical fields (e.g. speech recognition, computer vision, robotics). Whereas deep learning methods are becoming ubiquitous, they have been barely explored in SSA applications, in particular with regard to object characterization for Space Traffic Management (STM).

In this paper, we report the results obtained in designing and training a set of CNNs and RNNs for Space Object (SO) classification and characterization using light-curve measurements. More specifically, we provide a comparison between deep networks trained on both physically-based models (i.e. …

Aircraft-Runway Total Energy Measurement, Monitoring, Managing, Safety, And Control System And Method, Nihad E. Daidzic,

Aviation Department Publications

United States Patent, Patent Number US 10,202,204 B1, Date of Patent February 12, 2019.

A total runway safety system (TRSS) and method measures, monitors, manages, and informs flight crew on the progress of takeoffs and landings and of any hazardous runway conditions. In some embodiments, the TRSS measures, monitors, and informs flight crew of longitudinal and lateral runway tracks thus preventing overruns and veer-offs during takeoffs and landings. In some embodiments, backscatter of infrared laser beams emitted by the aircraft is used to evaluate groundspeed and the reflectivity of the runway surface to make estimates of the surface conditions, rough­ness …

Effect Of Chemical Reactions On The Fluidic Thrust Vectoring Of An Axisymmetric Nozzle, Rachid Chouicha, Mohamed Sellam, Said Bergheul

International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace

Abstract:

During the last years, several thrust control systems of aerospace rocket engines have been developed. The fluidic thrust vectoring is one of them; it is simple in design and offers a substantial gain in weight and in performance. Most of studies related to this device were carried out with cold gas. It’s quite legitimate to expect that the thermophysical properties of the gases may affect considerably the flow behavior. Besides, the effects of reacting gases at high temperatures, under their effects all flow parameters like to vary.

This study aims to develop a new methodology that allows studying and …

Computation Of Eclipse Time For Low-Earth Orbiting Small Satellites, Sumanth R M

International Journal of Aviation, Aeronautics, and Aerospace

This paper addresses a method for computing eclipse and daylight time for satellites in LEO. Continuous health-monitoring of the satellite is required for the success the mission. For this, the satellites are primarily powered by solar energy but during the eclipse time, the satellite’s functioning is affected as it cannot generate power during this period and also, its temperature drops rapidly. To tackle these issues, computing eclipse time for satellites becomes essential so as to plan for sizing its secondary power source for continuous functioning. In this work, eclipse time is being computed and it is shown that eclipse time …