Community Funding: Rural Grocery Stores Like IKE!

IKE is the “Invest Kansas Exemption” for conducting a public offering of securities in a Kansas community without having to register with the Office of the Kansas Securities Commissioner (KSC). The Home Town Market in Minneola, KS used IKE to finance building renovations and equipment for the grocery store and deli. KSC presenters will explain how IKE and other alternatives for grocery store financing are possible under Kansas and federal securities laws. IKE is designed to assist small businesses and other organizations formed in Kansas raise up to a total of $1,000,000 during a 12-month period. Sales to any one purchaser are limited to$5,000 unless the purchaser is an accredited investor. There are no fee requirements; issuer’s only need to submit a one-page form for notice to KSC; and KSC staff is available to help with questions before and after an IKE offering. Following Kansas being the first state to enact an exemption like this, several other states have also formed similar exemptions and laws. You can go to our website and review more about IKE at www.ksc.ks.gov/IKE. Other common exemptions are listed on the left panel of this page

Cryogenic Experimentation on the Magnetohydrodynamics of Liquid Oxygen

The increasing demands of the small satellite industry are forcing the development of subsystems with increased reliability and robustness while maintaining harsh mass and volume constraints. Basic research has begun on the cryogenic magnetohydrodynamic properties of liquid oxygen to determine its feasibility as a working fluid in a magnetic system void of mechanically moving parts. A 1D finite-differenced numerical algorithm verified experimental data on the dynamics of a liquid oxygen slug propagated by pulsed magnetic fields. Up to 1.4 T was induced by electrically-sequenced solenoids wound with 30 gauge copper wire. The test section consisted of two solenoids and a 0.075 inch quartz tube and was completely submerged in liquid nitrogen. Because of this, visual confirmation of the slug size was difficult, and the algorithm was also used to determine its length. Using data obtained from upstream and downstream pressure sensors, the lengths were predicted as 3.75 inches for an oscillating slug test and as 2.2 inches for a propagating slug test. The maximum pressure differential obtained was 0.24 psi, which is comparable to ferrofluid-based experiments. The experiment resulted in the most detailed information to date on the paramagnetic susceptibility of liquid oxygen. It is anticipated that this basic research will eventually lead to the development of small satellite subsystems with significantly longer lifetimes

Integrated Test Facility for Nanosat Assessment and Verification

SDL has developed an advanced test facility to characterize and verify the performance of small satellites up to 10 kg, thus reducing pre-flight risk. NOVA (Nanosat Operation, Verification, and Assessment), has been in operation since Aug. 2010, and has been used to test and calibrate a number of CubeSats and payloads, including DICE, PEARL, Falling Sphere, and STAROP. This testing has included determining the attitude determination accuracy of spinning sun sensor magnetometer systems. The test stations are: mass properties, sun sensor calibration and testing, reaction wheel testing and characterization, magnetometer testing and calibration, torquer coil testing and characterization, solar array power generation, and end-to-end system-level testing. Horizon sensor testing is currently being developed. Such a facility is warranted by the anticipated national development rate of dozens of CubeSats per year and an international projection of hundreds of CubeSats per year. Due to the small size of CubeSats and their sensitivity to disturbances, novel testing approaches are needed. For example, a spherical air bearing that was previously used on a larger spacecraft was not an option due to the alignment inaccuracies. A single-axis air bearing with an integrated optical encoder is used to provide truth data for closed loop attitude control testing. The facility considers three classes of nanosats, depending on their accuracy requirements: Class 1 spinning satellites with sun sensors and magnetometers with pointing knowledge of 1° and control of 5°, Class 2 non-spinning spacecraft with sun sensors and magnetometers with pointing knowledge of 0.2° and control of 0.2°, and Class 3 non-spinning spacecraft using star trackers with pointing knowledge of 0.01° and control of 0.02°. Class 1 can currently be tested with sufficient accuracy using a combination of a spinning attitude determination test and a hardware-in-the-loop (HWIL) sensor/dynamics/actuator “flatsat” emulator. Class 2 can also be tested, but with some loss of fidelity, with the HWIL system. Magnetic cleanliness for this class of pointing is a challenge. For Class 3, the test facility will use a highly accurate Stewart platform for motion simulation, and a star simulator source. These upgrades are planned for the future when warranted by the maturity of nanosat-sized star trackers. SDL has a Stewart platform available in its Albuquerque, NM, laboratory. Since a key component of the system-level testing is the HWIL simulation, the component test stations must provide high-fidelity models. The sun sensor test cell uses a simulated sun source and a 2-axis gimbal with 0.01° repeatability. The horizon sensor test uses an earth simulator plate in front of a liquid nitrogen cooled background representing space. The magnetic test cell for torquer coils and magnetometers uses a 3-axis Helmholtz cage with a field which can be rotated in real time using closed-loop control to within 10 nanotesla. Dual NIST-traceable differential magnetometers provide highly accurate results. A zero-gauss chamber is also available for magnetometer calibration and determination of nanosat magnetic dipole moment. The reaction wheel test cell measures wheel speed very accurately using 400 MHz sampling and derives the torque analytically. The solar panel test cell provides a continuous AM0 light source to verify the power output of the solar arrays. A NIST-traceable pyranometer is used to measure the light intensity in the target area. The mass properties test cell features load cells and kinematic mounts to obtain the measurements needed to verify and refine the calculations from the CAD models and to statically and dynamically balance the spacecraft. Mass can be measured within 2 grams (3σ) and center of gravity to within 1 mm (3σ). The resulting laboratory provides a single location for evaluating a large set of systems and properties for completed nanosats

SOFIE Instrument Model and Performance Comparison

Space Dynamics Laboratory (SDL), in partnership with GATS, Inc., designed, built, and calibrated an instrument to conduct the Solar Occultation for Ice Experiment (SOFIE). SOFIE is the primary infrared sensor in the NASA Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere (AIM) instrument suite. AIM\u27s mission is to study polar mesospheric clouds (PMCs). SOFIE will make measurements in 16 separate spectral bands, arranged in 8 pairs between 0.29 and 5.3 μm. Each band pair will provide differential absorption limb-path transmission profiles for an atmospheric component of interest, by observing the sun through the limb of the atmosphere during solar occultation as AIM orbits Earth. A fast steering mirror and imaging sun sensor coaligned with the detectors will track the sun during occultation events and maintain stable alignment of the Sun on the detectors. This paper outlines the instrument specifications and resulting design. The success of the design process followed at SDL is illustrated by comparison of instrument model calculations to calibration results, and lessons learned during the SOFIE program are discussed. Relative spectral response predictions based on component measurements are compared to end-to-end spectral response measurements. Field-of-view measurements are compared to design expectations, and radiometric predictions are compared to results from blackbody and solar measurements. Measurements of SOFIE detector response non-linearity are presented, and compared to expectations based on simple detector models