The ThinSat Program: Flight Opportunities for Education, Research and Industry

The ThinSat is the next iteration of the flight proven PocketQube design. The ThinSat standard is based on a common bus architecture with set electrical and mechanical interfaces that simplifies the development of diverse payloads. The bus design includes power, C&DH, communication systems and has options for attitude control and determination. Participants in the program need only provide systems that conform to the available documented bus design. Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority (Virginia Space) has secured payload capacity on the second stage of future Orbital ATK Antares rockets launched from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at NASA Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. Virginia Space and Twiggs Space Lab (TSL) will launch 60 ThinSats on their first mission in the Fall 2018 (on the OA-10 mission), and 80 ThinSats on each of the subsequent Antares ISS resupply missions through December 2024. Additional capacity may be added to meet increases in demand. The large number of deployments per launch means that ThinSats have the potential to surpass the opportunities for scientific discoveries, technical innovations and commercial applications that were enabled by the adoption of the CubeSat. ThinSats represent the next logical step in the small satellite industry, by further reducing development times, lowering technical barriers to entry, and reducing overall mission cost and complexity

Nature of and Lessons Learned from Lunar Ice Cube and the First Deep Space Cubesat 'Cluster'

Cubesats operating in deep space face challenges Earth-orbiting cubesats do not. 15 deep space cubesat 'prototypes' will be launched over the next two years including the two MarCO cubesats, the 2018 demonstration of dual communication system at Mars, and the 13 diverse cubesats being deployed from the SLS EM1 mission within the next two years. Three of the EM1 cubesat missions, including the first deep space cubesat 'cluster', will be lunar orbiters with remote sensing instruments for lunar surface/regolith measurements. These include: Lunar Ice Cube, with its 1-4 micron broadband IR spectrometer, BIRCHES, to determine volatile distribution as a function of time of day; Lunar Flashlight, to confirm the presence of surface ice at the lunar poles, utilizing an active source (laser), and looking for absorption features in the returning signal; and LunaH-Map to characterize ice at or below the surface at the poles with a compact neutron spectrometer. In addition, the BIRCHES instrument on Lunar Ice Cube will provide the first demonstration of a microcryocooler (AIM/IRIS) in deep space. Although not originally required to do so, all will be delivering science data to the Planetary Data System, the first formal archiving effort for cubesats. 4 of the 20 recently NASA-sponsored (PSDS3) study groups for deep space cubesat/smallsat mission concepts were lunar mission concepts, most involving 12U cubesats. NASA SIMPLEX 2/SALMON 3 AO will create ongoing opportunities for low-cost missions as 'rides' on government space program or private sector vehicles as these become available

Educational initiative in an NCATS TL1 training program to address the impact of systemic racism on human health, biomedical research, and the translational scientist

INTRODUCTION: The goal of clinical and translational science (CTS) is to fill gaps in medical knowledge toward improving human health. However, one of our most pressing challenges does not reside within the biological map we navigate to find sustainable cures but rather the moral compass to recognize and overcome racial and ethnic injustices that continue to influence our society and hinder diverse research rigor. The Georgetown-Howard Universities Center for Clinical and Translational Science includes an inter-institutional TL1-funded training program for predoctoral/postdoctoral trainees in Translational Biomedical Science (TBS). METHODS: In the fall of 2020, the TBS program responded to the national social justice crisis by incorporating a curriculum focused on structural racism in biomedical research. Educational platforms, including movie reviews, Journal Clubs, and other workshops, were threaded throughout the curriculum by ensuring safe spaces to discuss racial and ethnic injustices and providing trainees with practical steps to recognize, approach, and respond to these harmful biases in the CTS. Workshops also focused on why individuals underrepresented in science are vital for addressing and closing gaps in CTS. RESULTS: Paring analysis using REDCap software de-identified participants after invitations were sent and collected in the system to maintain anonymity for pre- and post-analysis. The Likert scale evaluated respondents\u27 understanding of diverse scientific circumstances. The pre/Fall and post/Spring surveys suggested this curriculum was successful at raising institutional awareness of racial and ethnic biases. Evaluating the effectiveness of our program with other training Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) consortiums will strengthen both the academic and professional TBS programs