Pre-conference Workshop
Sunday Session 8: Educational Programs II
Helping Students Reach Space: University Nanosatellite Program Challenges and Lessons Learned
Shivani Patel, Jesse Olson - ATA-Aerospace; Kate Yoshino, Lee Jasper, Jeffrey Ganley, Lauren Hunt – Air Force Research Lab
- Mission management – systems eng concepts and pitfalls
- Personel management – team infrastructure concepts
- Project management – political aspects
- Study across 5000+ students doing CubeSat projects
What happens when we have a mix of contractor and universities:
Tend to give students more responsibility to learn
Mission Management
- Majority of issues in student-led CubeSats projects
- lie in feasibility studies and concept exploration, hard to get accepted later if too complex
- Lesson: submitting proposals that are overzealous in order to present proposals with scientific significance makes things complicated, risky and success is less achievable
- Example: university proposes to completely develop a s/c bus and scientific pld with the same workforce – this can cause problems (conveying requirements and objectives is hard)
- It’s mostly a payload vs. s/c bus expertise in a team, rarely both. Science vs. tech eng. team
- Limitations in universities:
- Lack of full time employees
- Lack of funding
- Lack of schedule
- Strength
- Collaborative environment
Personnel management
- Found that this hierarchy normally gives mission success (in following order):
- Principal Investigators (PIs)
- Program/Project Manager & Chief Engineer
- Subsystem leaders
- Subsystem workforce
- One project status meeting and one technical meeting per week (nominally).
- Lesson: filling and maintaining the required roles is hard, needs proper documentation and good management
- Need these roles for team success: the visionary, the doer, the breaker, the healer (latter has high EQ which is needed)
- Limitations:
- Learning workforce
- It must be a self-teaching workforce
- Rapid turnover
- Strengths:
- Interdisciplinary backgrounds
- Recruit base is potentially large
Project management
- Lesson: preventing schedule extremes
- Slow is not good, snowball effect. Fast also bad since students are not working full-time!
- Limitations:
- No FTE’s
- High rate of turnover
- General research project politics
- Strengths:
- Control over intermediate milestones
Link to paper: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/smallsat/2018/all2018/464/
Reliving 24 Years in the next 12 Minutes: A Statistical and Personal History of University-Class Satellites
Michael Swartwout - Saint Louis University
Student training is at least as important as any other mission objective (should be stated clear in the objectives when doing mission design)
- Three university-class missions
Link to paper: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/smallsat/2018/all2018/465/
HEPTA-Sat Training Program: International Knowledge Transfer Using Hands-on Type CubeSat Education
Masahiko Yamazaki, Taiga Zengo - Nihon University
- Understand functions
- Assemble
- Integration
- Test
- International Hands-on workshop, countries join by decision of UN
Link: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/smallsat/2018/all2018/466/
Mission Quality Assurance Virtual Training and Certification Using the NASA Academy of Aerospace Quality
Alice Smith, Jeffrey Smith, Alejandro Teran-Somohano - Auburn University
- Course: tutorial on training & certification, quizzes, lessons learned, NASA standards
Link: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/smallsat/2018/all2018/467/
Sunday Session 9: Upcoming Missions
HaloSat: A Search for Missing Baryons with a CubeSat
Anna Zajczyk, Philip Kaaret, Donald Kirchner, Daniel LaRocca, William Robison - University of Iowa; Keith Jahoda, Thomas Johnson - NASA Goddard Space Flight Center; Dimitra Koutroumpa - Le Laboratoire Atmosphères
- Achieved 0.002 deg pointing accuracy (2 sigma)
- Using Blue Canyon Technologies COTS
Link: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/smallsat/2018/all2018/471/
MeznSat: A CubeSat for Greenhouse Gases Monitoring and Algal Blooms Prediction
Abdul-Halim Jallad, Zulkifli Aziz, Aisha Allam - American University of Ras Al-Khaimah; Prashanth Marpu, Alexandros Tsoupos – Khalifa University; Abdulla Marar – United Arab Emirates Space Agency
- 3U C/S for monitoring greenhouse gases
- Monitor methane and CO2 in atmosphere over UAE
- SWIR 1000nm—1700 nm, RGB camera
- Monitor red tide??? Not feasible yet. Only greenhouse gases as of now.
- 3 yrs to cover UAE – narrow FoV. Coverage analysis in STK
Link: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/smallsat/2018/all2018/473/
MarCO: Early Operations of the First CubeSats to Mars
Andrew Klesh, Brian Clement, Cody Colley, John Essmiller, Daniel Forgette, Joel Krajewski, Anne Marinan, Tomas Martin-Mur – NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
- Experienced propulsion system leak
- Early mission beeps achieved
- Comms with DSN
- 120 MB downlinked to earth
- SDR capability
- Use solar radiation pressure (SRP) to desaturate wheels
Link: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/smallsat/2018/all2018/474/
Guatemala's Remote Sensing CubeSat - Tools and Approaches to Increase the Probability of Mission Success
Marvin Martínez, Diego González, Diego Rodríguez, Johan Birnie, José Bagur, Ricardo Paz, Emilio Miranda, Fernanda Solórzano - Universidad del Valle de Guatemala
- Multi-spectral Imager (450, 550, 680, 700 nm)
- Gomspace boards
- Also developed self-made CubeSat subsystems
- Developed Risk matrix, FMEA, N-square diagrams
Link: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/smallsat/2018/all2018/476/
Sunday Session 10: A Look Back - Lessons Learned
On-Orbit Demonstrations of Robust Autonomous Operations on Cubesat
Toshihiro Obata, Shinichi Nakasuka, Yoshihide Aoyanagi, Takeshi Matsumoto - The University of Tokyo; Seiko Shirasaka - Keio University
- Human error most likely cause for disfunctionality
- Autonomous functions (not sequence of events) - feedback loop on what satellite images to how it executes operations
- Commanding/scheduling
- Quality relaxation
Link: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/smallsat/2018/all2018/479/
Initial Results from the TechnoSat In-Orbit Demonstration Mission
Merlin Barschke, Philipp Werner, Karsten Gordon, Marc Lehmann, Walter Frese, Daniel Noak - Technische Universität Berlin; Ludwig Grunwaldt - German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ); Georg Kirchner - Austrian Academy of Sciences (OeAW)
- TU Berlin transmits data (payload+housekeeping/TM) all through S-band
- Fluid dynamic actuator
- 2.3 deg/s in one second – 40 mNM
Link: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/smallsat/2018/all2018/480/
ANDESITE: A Student Built Swarm from Concept to Launch and Beyond
Jonathan Parham, Maria Kromis, Phillip Teng, Aleks Zosuls, Brian Walsh, Joshua Semeter - Boston University
- FCC license complications lessons learned – start early (they planned for launch in 17 but ends up in end 2018 due to delays with FCC)
- Start early. All the reviews can complicate and delay! NASA MRR.
- Did risk analysis, did some tests took it apart right before launch – so they had to reassemble, do vibrations tests again.
- Simplify radio licensing and clear rules of the road from FCC
- Student graduation and turnover can be debilitating
- Commercial constellations offer a unique opportunity to do science
Link: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/smallsat/2018/all2018/481/
The CubeSat Radiometer Radio Frequency Interference Technology Validation (CubeRRT) Mission
Christopher Ball, Chi-Chih Chen, Christa McKelvey, Graeme Smith, Mark Andrews, Andrew O'Brien, Landon Garry, Joel T. Johnson - The Ohio State University
- Develop simulation tool to optimize duty cycle
- Should have done more testing before launch
- Should also have had more operations training on ground before actual operations - took a while to learn this
- They should have done additional exploration for comms. Explored options for data downlink.
Link: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/smallsat/2018/all2018/482/
Lessons Learned from Building the First Chilean Nano-satellite: The SUCHAI Project
Carlos Gonzalez, Camilo Rojas, Alex Becerra, Javier Rojas, Tomas Opazo, Marcos Diaz - University of Chile
- Team:
- PIs: 1 Marcos Diaz
- Undergrads: 6
- Grads: 10
- Engineers: 5
- 2011-2017 (concept in 2011, started testing in 2015)
- Went from Falcon9 to PSLV
- Resets important (do it weekly)
- Use RGB camera for visual validation of deployment and geo-referencing, enhances orbit knowledge
- Flight Software (open-source)
- Lessons learned
- A versioned agile approach – going from simple to more complex
- Flight software very helpful
- Collaboration with HAM radio community
- Difficult to avoid failures – learn from them and pay attention
- No better way than to train people than doing it hands-on
- CubeSat simple as it is can be a great kick off for something “bigger”
Link: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/smallsat/2018/all2018/483/
Conference
Monday Technical Session 1: The Year in Review
Dellingr: Reliability Lessons Learned from On-Orbit
Larry Kepko, Luis Santos Soto, Chuck Clagett, Behnam Azimi, Dean Chai, Alan Cudmore, James Marshall, John Lucas - NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
- Observed anamolous gyro data (Nov 2017)
- Observed sun pointing inaccuracy
- Reaction wheels started actuating back and forth
- GPS unresponsive (mission on compromise, Dec 2017)
- Flight computer system (FCS) crashed
- Bug in the FCS
- Reconstructed the error on FlatSat
- Reset problems
- Watchdog timer for 4 min between EPS and CPU
- Uncontrolled spin
- Tested bdotapp in “42” ADCS simulator
Link: http://bit.ly/DellingrPaper2018
Demonstration in Space of a Smart Hyperspectral Imager for Nanosatellites
Marco Esposito, Chris van Dijk, Nathan Vercruyssen, Simon Silvio Conticello, Pierluigi Foglia Manzillo, Rick Koeleman - cosine measurement systems; Bavo Delauré, Iskander Benhadj - VITO NV
- not presented, please see paper under (important!)
Link: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4069&context=smallsat
Tuesday Technical Session 3: Advanced Technologies 1
Test and Development of Prototype 1000W X-band Microwave Solid-State Power Amplifier for Small SAR Satellite
Hiromi Watanabe - Keio University; Koji Tanaka, Koichi Ijichi, Hirobumi Saito - Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency; Seiko Shirasaka - Keio University
- Didn't catch the presentation, please read if interested in SAR
Link: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/smallsat/2018/all2018/267/
One-year Lunar Calibration Result of Hodoyoshi-1, Moon as an Ideal Target for Small Satellite Radiometric Calibration
Toru Kouyama, Ryosuke Nakamura - National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology; Soushi Kato – Remote Sensing Technology Center of Japan; Naoki Miyashita - Axelspace Corporation
- Didn't catch the presentation, but relevant
Link: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/smallsat/2018/all2018/268/
Tuesday Technical Session 4: Delivering Mission Success
Improving Mission Success of CubeSats
Catherine Venturini, Barbara Braun, David Hinkley - The Aerospace Corporation; Greg Berg - formerly at The Boeing Company
- Didn't catch the presentation, but relevant
Link: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4085&context=smallsat
Tuesday Technical Session 5: Science / Mission Payloads 1
Design Principles for Smallsat SARs
Anthony Freeman – NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory
- Conventional design:
- Minimze along-track spatial resolution
- Size antenna to give widest possible ambiguity-free swath
- Maximize SNR
- Non-conventional design (for CubeSat):
- Don’t design for min spatial resolution and max antenna width
- Minimize the antenna length
- Allow for Pulse Repetition Frequency to be below Doppler Bandwidth
- PSF 80% of Doppler BW
- Scientists want 10 m resolution. This is acceptable (and also wide swath)
- S/C mass driven by antenna mass
- Don’t use phased arrays, mictrostrip patches instead
- Low number of acquisition modes – low mass
- Add polarization diversity only when needed to meet the majority of sys requirements
- Their specs:
- Antenna dimensions 1.7m x 0.3 m
- One-time per orbit 3 min
- Beware of thermal overload
Link: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/smallsat/2018/all2018/280/
A Highly Miniaturized Satellite Payload Based on a Spatial Heterodyne Spectrometer for the Detection of Faint Emissions in the Atmosphere
Martin Kaufmann, Michael Deiml, Jilin Liu, Qiuyu Chen, Oliver Wroblowski, Martin Riese - Research Centre Jülich; Friedhelm Olschewski, Ralf Koppmann - University of Wuppertal
- Making smaller, then lower spatial resolution – light throughput (register less photons)
- SNR issues (too low)
- If we want to miniaturize payloads, careful!
- SHS design
- Assembly requires um-tolerances band/or interferometric control
- Underestimated the need for calibration and assembly
Link: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/smallsat/2018/all2018/283/
Microsats and Moby Dick: Microsatellite Support to Whale Science and Conservation
Matt Bille, Rachel Dendiu, Kirk Borne, Laurie Baker, Steve Brune, Ian Byrnes, Chris Round – Booz Allen Hamilton
- Interesting but not relevant
Link: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/smallsat/2018/all2018/286/
Wednesday Session 7: Science / Mission Payloads II
Engineering-Model Results of X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar for Small Satellite and its Application to Constellation Mission
Hirobumi Saito, Prilando Akbar, Koji Tanaka, Koichi Ijichi, Makoto Mita - Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency; Budhaditya Pyne, Tomoki Kaneko, Toshihiro Obata - The University of Tokyo
- Didn't catch this but read if interested in SAR
Link: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/smallsat/2018/all2018/293/
Wednesday Technical Session 8: Frank J. Redd Student Competition
Improved Model for Low Cost Sun Sensor Attitude Filtering
Nicholas DiGregorio - University at Buffalo
- Didn't catch this but interesting
Link: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/smallsat/2018/all2018/302/
Wednesday Technical Session 9: Space Access
- Nothing interesting. I left.
Wednesday Technical Session 10: Ground Systems
- Didn't have time. But would be worth going to.
- See papers in: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/smallsat/2018/TPS10-2018/
- SDR: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/smallsat/2018/all2018/314/
- SatNOGS: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/smallsat/2018/all2018/313/
Others (that I didn't make it to on Saturday Sessions):
- Statistical Analysis of CubeSat Mission Failure. Link: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/smallsat/2018/all2018/428/
- Characterizing COTS IMU Performance in High Vacuum. Link: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/smallsat/2018/all2018/430/
- ADCS at Scale: Calibrating and Monitoring the Dove Constellation. Link: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/smallsat/2018/all2018/427/
- Reliable, Fast, and Flexible: A Thermal Modeling Approach for Small Satellites. Link: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/smallsat/2018/all2018/426/
- Frequency and Legal Regulations Surrounding a Ground Station Network. Link: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/smallsat/2018/all2018/425/
Adapting Low-Cost Multispectral Drone Technology to CubeSats for Environmental Monitoring and Management: Harmful Algal Bloom Satellite-1 (HABSat-1). Link: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/smallsat/2018/all2018/438/