Results of the Magnetorquer Wrapping

This summer I had worked with a team of engineers on a life-changing research project that is important to the well-being of living. This project has also afforded me the opportunity to develop a lesson plan around the research that I conducted about satellites, not only will this lesson plan contain research done by myself but by other researchers as well. The first step of my research consisted of me learning about satellites and all their capabilities. Once I had gained new knowledge about satellites I was then tasked to learn about a specific satellite known as Technological and Educational Nanosatellite 7 (TechEdSat7), which was the satellite that the my team was tasked to working on in (JPL) Jet Propulsion Lab. The second step of my research then consisted of me doing “the history of mathematics” to find out what ideas had led to satellites being develop in today’s society. When doing the mathematics research I expanded my knowledge about mathematic techniques, methods, and formulas across many regions in the world like Europe 400-1200AD and Middle East 700-1200AD; furthermore, I learned about famous scientists/philosophers and their ideas like Sir Isaac Newton, Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz to help stretch my research. This preliminary research was important so that I can make a connection between mathematics and satellites so that I can translate such high level knowledge to elementary students. The next phase of my project was to then find out how the “Eratosthenes Measurement (276-195 B.C)” was so instrumental in astronomy for satellites to be so effective. The last stage of my project was helping develop a nanosatellite and creating a lab procedure for future and fellow engineers when making a nanosatellite

Robotix Fair 2018

No abstract availabl

The TechEdSat/PhoneSat Missions for Small Payload Quick Return

In 2014, Ames Research Center launched the Technical Educational Satellite 4 (TechEdSat 4) from an external launcher aboard the International Space Station. This experimental CubeSat deployed an exobrake, an exo-atmospheric drag chute that can be used for controlled de-orbit of a small payload canister from earth orbit. This capability is useful for returning biological samples from ISS and even planetary samples from beyond the earth. Such capability can support better biological and medical science experiments and is a long-term goal of NASA and industry. The results of the TechEdSat 4 (TES4) mission will be presented along with the design of the follow-on spacecraft, TechEdSat5/PhoneSat5 (TES5/PS5), which will launch from ISS this summer. The TES4 exobrake deployed, changed the drag on the CubeSat, resulting in early orbital reentry. The time frame for de-orbit and the quantitative drag assessment from this experiment is very useful for designing future Small Payload Quick Return (SPQR) methods and spacecraft. The TES5/PS5 features improved GPS tracking and a modulated exo-brake allowing more precise control of the exo-atmospheric drag and therefore the re-entry time and location. The TES5/PS5 is a significant upgrade from TES4, featuring an improved C&DH built around the Intel Edison mobile computing platform, the core of new PhoneSat. This CubeSat has an ISM-band WiFi downlink for data, significantly reducing the cost of such communication services. It features multiple cameras to help verify exo-brake deployment and modulation. The GPS tracking should give precise orbital trajectories leading to much better drag assessment, re-entry targetting and other benefits

TechEdSat Nano-Satellite Series Fact Sheet

TechEdSat-3p is the second generation in the TechEdSat-X series. The TechEdSat Series uses the CubeSat standards established by the California Polytechnic State University Cal Poly), San Luis Obispo. With typical blocks being constructed from 1-unit (1U 10x10x10 cm) increments, the TechEdSat-3p has a 3U volume with a 30 cm length. The project uniquely pairs advanced university students with NASA researchers in a rapid design-to-flight experience lasting 1-2 semesters.The TechEdSat Nano-Satellite Series provides a rapid platform for testing technologies for future NASA Earth and planetary missions, as well as providing students with an early exposure to flight hardware development and management

A Battery Certification Testbed for Small Satellite Missions

A battery pack consisting of standard cylindrical 18650 lithium-ion cells has been chosen for small satellite missions based on previous flight heritage and compliance with NASA battery safety requirements. However, for batteries that transit through the International Space Station (ISS), additional certification tests are required for individual cells as well as the battery packs. In this manuscript, we discuss the development of generalized testbeds for testing and certifying different types of batteries critical to small satellite missions. Test procedures developed and executed for this certification effort include: a detailed physical inspection before and after experiments; electrical cycling characterization at the cell and pack levels; battery-pack overcharge, over-discharge, external short testing; battery-pack vacuum leak and vibration testing. The overall goals of these certification procedures are to conform to requirements set forth by the agency and identify unique safety hazards. The testbeds, procedures, and experimental results are discussed for batteries chosen for small satellite missions to be launched from the ISS

Communications for the TechEdSat5/PhoneSat5 Mission

The TechEdSat5/PhoneSat5 (T5/P5) Mission continues the series of orbital CubeSats from NASA Ames Research Center that incorporates advanced avionics and communications to support the testing of an exo-atmospheric parachute. This “exo-brake” slows down a spacecraft allowing controlled deorbit and recovery of payloads from International Space Station (ISS) by modulating the drag coefficient. The T5/P5 spacecraft consists of baseline avionics from the TechEdSat line together with new avionics based on the Intel Edison that forms the PhoneSat core. The T5 avionics controls solar power generation and power management, and provides spacecraft telemetry and is the primary control unit. The P5 avionics supports additional sensors and cameras, using separate communication systems for low-rate uplink and downlink and a high-speed downlink based on WiFi technology operating in the 2.4 GHz ISM frequency band. Orbit determination is performed using an on-board GPS unit, which is powered up every day to gather precise orbital location information. The T5/P5 CubeSat supports a compact wireless sensor module that uses radio signals to communicate temperature, barometric, translational and rotational acceleration and a magnetometer to the avionics. Two cameras take pictures of the exo-brake after deployment, confirming the shape and modulation of the effective area. The telemetry, sensor data and image data are downlinked via the Iridium communication link or through the high-speed ISM-band downlink to our Wallops Flight Facility ground station. Commands are received through two Iridium modems, one for T5 and the other for P5 avionics. The paper will describe the spacecraft, the communication links, mission operations and the results from the deorbit experiment. The power management of the various T5/P5 subsystems is described in the context of available power generation from the new solar panels. Of particular interest is the number of telemetry packets sent and commands received during the low-earth orbital mission using the Iridium satellite constellation. Communication is only possible when proper alignment between the CubeSat antenna and an Iridium satellite occurs, so the probability of message transfer is a key operational issue. The use of image compression for sending pictures down this low-rate link is demonstrated as well. In comparison, the number of successful passes and the data volume received using the WiFi ISM-band downlink to the dedicated ground station is analyzed, comparing actual link margin to that predicted. This analysis provides insight into potential improvements in uplink and downlink capability for subsequent CubeSat missions

Nodes: A Flight Demonstration of Networked Spacecraft Command and Control

Nodes is a pair of 1.5 U Cubesats developed by the NASA Ames Research Center under the Small Spacecraft Technology Program (SSTP) within NASA Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD). The Nodes spacecraft were launched to the ISS in December, 2015 and deployed from the ISS in early May of 2016. Nodes is designed to expand the utility of small spacecraft networks and to explore issues related to the command and control of swarms of multiple spacecraft making synchronized, multipoint scientific measurements. Networked swarms of small spacecraft will provide new insights in the fields of astronomy, Earth observations and solar physics. Their range of applications include the formation of synthetic aperture radars for Earth sensing systems, large aperture observatories for next generation telescopes and the collection of spatially distributed measurements of time varying systems, probing the Earth’s magnetosphere, Earth-Sun interactions and the Earth’s geopotential. While these swarms have great potential, they create new challenges to the Cubesat community related to managing large numbers of spacecraft in close proximity. The Nodes mission addresses these challenges through three primary objectives. The Nodes spacecraft will autonomously self-organize, selecting which spacecraft will lead the formation, collect data and pass those data to the ground, all based on the states of the spacecraft. It will also demonstrate the commanding of spacecraft in a swarm, from the ground and through the network. Finally, Nodes will make synchronized, multi-point science measurements of the Earth’s charged particle environment. This paper describes the Nodes spacecraft and mission and preliminary results from the Nodes flight experiment. Furthermore, the communications architecture and approach to managing swarms of spacecraft are discussed. Finally, future network enhancements that can be built on top of the current Nodes architecture are suggested