(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2022-06-08)
Kotani, Kohei
Today, the demand for big data, such as high-resolution images, has been rapidly increasing in space missions. However, the means to achieve multi-Gbps transmission is limited to ethernet, coax, or FFC in CubeSat design. This research describes the development of a lightweight and low-power consumption high-speed communication system suitable for small satellites. A high volume of data from two high-resolution cameras is transmitted to a Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 running Linux using a fiber-optic link as an interconnect, and the dual images are displayed on a monitor. The FPGA with a high-speed transceiver is extensively used to achieve high-speed communication. It is also verified that the fiber-optic module operates at up to 6.25 Gbps with a power consumption of 90 mW. This research includes the hardware and software development details. All the materials, including the schematics, PCB design, and programming codes, can be found in the Github repository. Furthermore, this thesis includes the discussion of fiber-optic module usage in the space environment and comparing fiber-optic with ethernet, coax, and FFC, along with the selection guides CubeSat developers can refer to. The final deliverable of this research is the high-speed fiber-optic interconnection designed to fit into a CubeSat platform, demonstrating the dual-image display from two HD cameras. The prototype can be extended to implement high-volume data applications such as stereo imaging for proximity operations, free-space inter-satellite links, and high-speed intra-satellite communications for CubeSat platforms.
(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2021-05-01)
Rapoport, Samuel
Jupiter’s moon Europa, with internal energy from tidal heating and a global subsurface
saltwater ocean under a thick ice shell, presents incredible promise to the planetary science
community in the search for life and in our understanding of ocean worlds. Europa Clipper and a
Europa Lander would return valuable information on Europa’s environment, but the greatest
scientific returns require going beyond Europa’s surface and accessing the ocean underneath.
Penetrating Europa’s thick ice shell is a difficult technical challenge that is beyond the scope of
existing planetary science missions, thus a roadmap of how to get from today’s technology to a
successful Europa subsurface mission is required. Early and continuous investment must be made
to close these Significant Technology Gaps if we wish to realize a Europa subsurface mission in
the next two decades.
This report identifies Significant Technology Gaps for a Europa subsurface mission, giving
context around each technology as well as its application to Georgia Tech’s Vertical Entry Robot
for Navigating Europa (VERNE) vehicle. Technology needs, identifying where each technology
must advance, are explored and compared to the closest existing applications of the technology,
including the state of the art and current work in each field. Next steps for each technology, based
on the gap between the technology needs and the current work being done, are then
recommended. Topics explored include drilling technology, power and thermal systems, sample
handling, guidance navigation & control, and structures. This document can additionally be used
as a non-exhaustive literature review of these technologies limited to the scope of their
application to a Europa subsurface mission. If NASA invests in these critical technologies early
and consistently, a Europa melt probe could be selected as early as the decade 2033-2042.