Lessons Learned from the Application of Risk Management Process to SPORT CubeSat Project

The project implementation of a CubeSat System may have many risks which negatively impact aspects such as technical performance, system safety, cost, and schedule. To increase mission success, we may apply a risk management process. The Scintillation Prediction Observation Research Task (SPORT) CubeSat Project is a scientific mission to address the space weather problem of understanding the preconditions leading to equatorial plasma bubbles. SPORT is an international partnership between institutions from the United States of America and Brazil. The present research focuses on risk management activities from the point of view of the ITA Space Center in Brazil. There is some research regarding risks in Small Satellite and CubeSat projects. However, risks related to relationships among stakeholders, as well as organizational and external risks are not considered. A risk management process compatible with NASA’s handbook and procedures is presented. The results of the application of this risk management process during the final design and assembly, integration, and testing phases are assessed and results are presented and discussed. International partnerships increase the complexity of a project and have associated risks. Besides that, there are risks related to the acquisition of small satellite subsystems and components. For instance, the relationship with suppliers from the point of view of an organization in a developing country may present risks related to lead time, quality assurance, export, and import processes, as well as currency exchange rate variations. Another important aspect to consider is the importance of organizational factors and external risks and events which may impact the project. An example of an external risk event that severely impacted the project is the international pandemic. A risk management approach may facilitate communication and decision-making among international partners

Introduction of Space Projects in Public Elementary School at Mogi das Cruzes, Brazil

In 2014 efforts on teaching robotics for children at public elementary school started in the city of Mogi das Cruzes, São Paulo (Brasil). With this initiative, students of some elementary school were presented to technology and science and this work shows some of the results in two of these schools. This work aims to show the positive impacts of involving children and teenagers in topics involving Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and having as a background the applicability of their projects in space projects

The ITASAT CubeSat Development and Design

Because they are inexpensive platforms for satellites, CubeSats have become a low-cost way for universities and even developing countries to have access to space technology. This paper presents the ITASAT design, particularly the Attitude Determination and Control Subsystem, the Onboard Software, and the Assembly, Integration and Testing program. The ITASAT is a 6U CubeSat nano-satellite in development at the Instituto Tecnologico de Aeronautica, in Sao Jose dos Campos, Brazil. The platform and its subsystems will be provided by industry while the payloads are being designed and developed by the principal investigators. The ITASAT Attitude Determination and Control Subsystem will rely on a 3-axis magnetometer, 6 analog cosine sun sensors, 3-axis MEMS gyroscopes, 3 magnetic torque coils, and 3 reaction wheels. The Attitude Determination and Control Subsystem operating modes, control laws, and embedded software are under the responsibility of the Instituto Tecnologico de Aeronautica. A Kalman filter shall be employed to estimate the quaternion attitude and gyroscope biases from sensor measurements. The Attitude Determination and Control Subsystem operating modes are the nominal mode, with geocentric pointing attitude control and the stabilization mode, in which only the satellite angular velocity is controlled. The nominal mode will be split into 2 sub-modes: reaction wheel control plus magnetic wheel desaturation and 3-axis magnetic attitude control. Simulation results have shown that the attitude can be controlled with 1-degree accuracy in nominal mode with the reaction wheels, but these errors grow as much as 20 degrees or higher with the 3-axis magnetic control.Inst Nacl Pesquisas Espaciais Engn, Sao Jose Dos Campos, SP, BrazilTecnol Espaciais Div Mecan Espacial Control, Sao Jose Dos Campos, SP, BrazilInst Tecnol Aeronaut, Dept Ciencia & Tecnol Aeroespacial, Div Engn Aeronaut, Praca Marechal Eduardo Gomes 50 Vila Acacias, BR-12230901 Sao Jose Dos Campos, SP, BrazilUniv Fed Sao Paulo, Inst Ciencia & Tecnol, Dept Ciencia Computacao, Sao Jose Dos Campos, SP, BrazilUniv Fed Sao Paulo, Inst Ciencia & Tecnol, Dept Engn Computacao, Sao Jose Dos Campos, SP, BrazilInst Tecnol Aeronaut, Dept Ciencia & Tecnol Aeroespacial, Div Engn Eletr & Computacao, Sao Jose Dos Campos, SP, BrazilUniv Fed Sao Paulo, Inst Ciencia & Tecnol, Dept Engn Computacao, Sao Jose Dos Campos, SP, BrazilWeb of Scienc

ITASAT-2 Mission Overview

The ITASAT-2 project is part of a progressive development of CubeSat space missions at the Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica (ITA). Focused simultaneously on space weather and on the development of new technological solutions, the ITASAT-2 mission is based on the previous developments of the ITASAT-1 and SPORT missions. Consisting of three 12U CubeSats in a formation flight, the mission expands on the study of ionospheric plasma movements and density, small-scale ionospheric structures, magnetic field, and radiation environment. On the development of technological solutions, the mission proposes to test a baseline option at LEO to understand the influence of ionospheric phenomena and signal deterioration on geolocation/aviation-related services. While it allows for the development of support technologies closely related to airworthiness and flight safety, the formation flight arrangement is expected to provide novel (temporal) insights on the evolution of ionospheric events. This paper presents an overview of the ITASAT-2 mission with the main mission objectives, the concept of operation, initial Systems Engineering analysis, and expected work for the next phases of the project

ITASAT-2: ConOps Review and Near-Term Challenges

ITASAT-2 is a Brazil-United States mission to study ionospheric phenomena that occur in low orbit and to develop and demonstrate capabilities in geolocation. Brazil will be responsible for the spacecraft development, integration and testing of the CubeSat and the US partners will provide the space weather payloads. The geolocation payload and radiation measurement instrument is intended to be provided by Brazil partners. To be able to accommodate the expected payloads and the required subsystems a 12 U CubeSat is foreseen. This works presents the ongoing work of ITASAT-2 mission covering the Concept of Operation and expected challenges identified for mission development, maneuvers and propulsion, commissioning and operations. The intended partners for the mission are NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Utah State University, University of Texas at Dallas, Aerospace Corporation, Brazilian Universities and institutes

Lessons Learned During Testing Through Commissioning of the Joint Brazil-US SPORT Mission

SPORT is an international partnership mission between Brazil and the United States to study ionospheric space weather processes that occur at low latitudes. Operating a CubeSat on orbit is certainly one of the most exciting milestones of a CubeSat project, but it is only a part of the mission. To be able to achieve this milestone the efforts of the engineering team were focused late in the project on the integration, testing, and delivery followed by the on-orbit commissioning of the observatory. This paper details the major events and lessons learned by the SPORT team during these phases of the project. SPORT experienced a failure of the battery subsystem during environmental testing followed by physical damage during shipping from Brazil to the United States for Launch. However, more than pointing out these problems, solutions, and lessons learned, this paper explains how the international team worked to overcome the issues and finalize the observatory for delivery and launch. After release from the ISS the SPORT team looked forward to the on-orbit observatory operations, first contacts, and the commissioning phase of the observatory, that is also described on this paper

Science CONOPS for Application of SPORT Mission Data to Study Large (~1000km) Ionospheric Plasma Depletions

The Scintillation Prediction Observations Research Task (SPORT) mission is a single 6U CubeSat space weather satellite planned for an October 2022 launch into an ISS-like orbit. The primary purpose of the SPORT mission is to determine the longitudinal effects on equatorial plasma bubble (EPB) growth resulting from the offset dipole magnetic field of the Earth. By combining field and plasma measurements from SPORT with other low-altitude (i.e., alt \u3c 1000 km) spacecraft, it is possible to investigate large-scale (\u3e 1000 km) EPB structures. The types of investigation made possible by measurements from SPORT and other contemporaneous missions include 1) dynamics of depleted magnetic flux tubes; 2) dynamics of field-aligned EPB expansion versus propagation speed; 3) EPB vertical extent; and 4) EPB temporal evolution. To support these investigation types, the respective modes of conjunctions are: 1) simultaneous intersection of a magnetic flux tube; 2) intersection of magnetic flux tube separated in time; 3) Simultaneous Latitude/Longitude position conjunction; and 4) Non-simultaneous latitude/longitude position conjunction. This paper will summarize the SPORT satellite and data used for Science CONOPS to accomplish these objectives

The ITASAT – The Lessons Learned from the Mission Concept to the Operation

The ITASAT Project was initiated as an effort of the Brazilian Space Agency (AEB), the Technological Institute of Aeronautics (ITA) and the National Institute of Space Research (INPE) to train human resources to the Aerospace sector due to the lack of experience of the students in practical projects in the aerospace segment in Brazil. In this effort students were challenged to design, build and operate a satellite in a hands-on project. Along the project years several changes happened on the satellite configuration, going through a 100 kg satellite to a 6U CubeSat and this last configuration was designed, assembled and tested. In December ITASAT was launched and since its launch has been tracked and operated by the ground operation team. In this paper we will discuss the lessons learned during the project, since the decision to change the satellite size and re-thinking the scope of the project objectives, focusing on system engineering, Assembly Integration and Testing (AIT), Verification and Validation (V&V) and ground operations. The paper will present the challenges of the group of students in this hands-on project, the mistakes and hits along the project phases

The ITA Space Center and Its Role in Space Education in Brazil

This paper presents the ITA Space Center and its mission in the formation of human resources and in the research and development of space products. In 2012 the first aerospace engineers were graduated at ITA, and since then many efforts have been done to improve the engineering education. The first effort was the development of AESP-14 CubeSat project, then the development and launch of ITASAT, a 6U CubeSat. These two projects showed that small satellites projects provide a good learning approach once students were deeply involved in the development process. These two projects opened the opportunity for the creation of the ITA Space Center (CEI -acronym for Centro Espacial ITA in Portuguese). Inside its facilities the ITA Space Center provides capabilities for the development of small space projects such as electronics, software engineering, mechanical design, and simulation with the aid of systems engineering and project management. By means of the graduate and undergraduate programs the ITA Space Center is providing education and integration with the industries and other partner organizations. In developing and delivering space products, and fostering higher education in space, the ITA Space Center is accomplishing of its proposed mission

Global, regional, and national burden of stroke and its risk factors, 1990–2019: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019

Background Regularly updated data on stroke and its pathological types, including data on their incidence, prevalence, mortality, disability, risk factors, and epidemiological trends, are important for evidence-based stroke care planning and resource allocation. The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) aims to provide a standardised and comprehensive measurement of these metrics at global, regional, and national levels. Methods We applied GBD 2019 analytical tools to calculate stroke incidence, prevalence, mortality, disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs), and the population attributable fraction (PAF) of DALYs (with corresponding 95% uncertainty intervals [UIs]) associated with 19 risk factors, for 204 countries and territories from 1990 to 2019. These estimates were provided for ischaemic stroke, intracerebral haemorrhage, subarachnoid haemorrhage, and all strokes combined, and stratified by sex, age group, and World Bank country income level. Findings In 2019, there were 12·2 million (95% UI 11·0–13·6) incident cases of stroke, 101 million (93·2–111) prevalent cases of stroke, 143 million (133–153) DALYs due to stroke, and 6·55 million (6·00–7·02) deaths from stroke. Globally, stroke remained the second-leading cause of death (11·6% [10·8–12·2] of total deaths) and the third-leading cause of death and disability combined (5·7% [5·1–6·2] of total DALYs) in 2019. From 1990 to 2019, the absolute number of incident strokes increased by 70·0% (67·0–73·0), prevalent strokes increased by 85·0% (83·0–88·0), deaths from stroke increased by 43·0% (31·0–55·0), and DALYs due to stroke increased by 32·0% (22·0–42·0). During the same period, age-standardised rates of stroke incidence decreased by 17·0% (15·0–18·0), mortality decreased by 36·0% (31·0–42·0), prevalence decreased by 6·0% (5·0–7·0), and DALYs decreased by 36·0% (31·0–42·0). However, among people younger than 70 years, prevalence rates increased by 22·0% (21·0–24·0) and incidence rates increased by 15·0% (12·0–18·0). In 2019, the age-standardised stroke-related mortality rate was 3·6 (3·5–3·8) times higher in the World Bank low-income group than in the World Bank high-income group, and the age-standardised stroke-related DALY rate was 3·7 (3·5–3·9) times higher in the low-income group than the high-income group. Ischaemic stroke constituted 62·4% of all incident strokes in 2019 (7·63 million [6·57–8·96]), while intracerebral haemorrhage constituted 27·9% (3·41 million [2·97–3·91]) and subarachnoid haemorrhage constituted 9·7% (1·18 million [1·01–1·39]). In 2019, the five leading risk factors for stroke were high systolic blood pressure (contributing to 79·6 million [67·7–90·8] DALYs or 55·5% [48·2–62·0] of total stroke DALYs), high body-mass index (34·9 million [22·3–48·6] DALYs or 24·3% [15·7–33·2]), high fasting plasma glucose (28·9 million [19·8–41·5] DALYs or 20·2% [13·8–29·1]), ambient particulate matter pollution (28·7 million [23·4–33·4] DALYs or 20·1% [16·6–23·0]), and smoking (25·3 million [22·6–28·2] DALYs or 17·6% [16·4–19·0]). Interpretation The annual number of strokes and deaths due to stroke increased substantially from 1990 to 2019, despite substantial reductions in age-standardised rates, particularly among people older than 70 years. The highest age-standardised stroke-related mortality and DALY rates were in the World Bank low-income group. The fastest-growing risk factor for stroke between 1990 and 2019 was high body-mass index. Without urgent implementation of effective primary prevention strategies, the stroke burden will probably continue to grow across the world, particularly in low-income countries.publishedVersio