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Master's Projects

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Design of a Payload Avionics Interface Board for the VISORS (VIrtual SuperOptics with Reconfigurable Swarms) CubeSat Mission

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2021-12-01) Kolhof, Maximilian

The following paper details the current state of the Payload Avionics Interface Board (PAIB) design for the VISORS mission. It is also intended as a resource for the students who will continue to develop its design into the future and manufacture the first realizations of this design. Context is provided for the entire VISORS mission as well as the need for this specific subsystem and how it contributes to success of the mission. The motivation and requirements for the PAIB are summarized to define the scope of the subsystem. Electrical and mechanical interfaces for the PAIB are discussed. Detail is provided for design decisions and component selection which has been completed thus far, with some guidance provided to aid in additional component selection. Finally, open action items and risks are discussed to set the stage for the next actions which must be completed to ensure development remains on schedule.
Design and Test of an Embedded Systems Controller for a BiModal CubeSat Propulsion System

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2021-12-01) Manchikanti, Kaushik

The Spectre Propulsion System is an effort to develop a bimodal propulsion system for CubeSats. Spectre aims to use green propellant to both drive a small chemical monopropellant thruster as well as an electrospray system. The project is a collaboration between NASA MSFC, Georgia Tech, and MIT. The propulsion unit hardware and controller are being developed within the GLRG at the SSDL at Georgia Tech, the systems engineering effort is being led by NASA MSFC, and the electrospray system development is being led by MIT SPL As a part of that effort, a low-cost system controller is being developed using commercial-of-the-shelf parts to drive costs down and still be able to withstand the harsh environments of space missions. This paper shows the development and test process of Spectre Propulsion System controller. From the high-level system architecture to the testing of specific hardware, the total controller system development effort will be outlined.
Spectre – Design of a Bimodal Propulsion System

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2021-12-01) Colon, Brandon J.

Miniaturization of propulsion systems has pushed the capabilities of small satellites by allowing them to perform more complex tasks such as orbital maneuvers and formation flying. Georgia Institute of Technology’s Space Systems Design Lab (SSDL) is designing a dual-mode propulsion system referred to as Spectre which will utilize AF-M315E (ASCENT) monopropellant to feed both modes. The propulsion system is capable of performing high thrust maneuvers via a chemical thruster that provides 1 N of thrust force and high efficiency maneuvers with 4 groups of electrospray thrusters. Spec
Design of a Cold Gas Propulsion System for the SunRISE Mission

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2021-08-01) Skidmore, Logan

NASA’s SunRISE Mission is a formation of six identical 6U CubeSats that will form the first low-frequency space-based radio telescope, studying the radio characteristics of the solar environment in order to yield insights into solar events that affect the safety of Astronauts and spacecraft, as well as systems on Earth. These spacecraft use cold-gas propulsion systems designed by the Space Systems Design Lab to perform delta-V and RCS maneuvers. Utilizing additive manufacturing processes for the main structure and tank, the SunRISE cold-gas propulsion system represents a continued demonstration of the Space Systems Design Lab’s ability to design custom propulsion systems using flight-capable hardware. This report outlines the development of the SunRISE Propulsion System from its initial proposal through its design evolution, concluding in discussion of its future integration and test campaign, as well as the future flight units.
Assembly, Integration, and Testing of a Green Monopropellant Propulsion System for NASA’s Lunar Flashlight Mission

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2021-08-01) Littleton, Lacey M.

Lunar Flashlight is a NASA 6U CubeSat that will orbit the moon. The objective of the mission is to investigate deep, permanently shaded craters for surface level water-ice. The satellite will be equipped with a 2.5U green monopropellant propulsion system (LFPS) capable of injecting the satellite into lunar orbit from a free return trajectory. This propulsion system will enable Lunar Flashlight to be the first CubeSat to be placed into orbit around a body other than Earth and will provide flight heritage for multiple micro-scale propulsion technologies that are on board. Design, manufacturing, integration, and testing of the propulsion system has been a joint effort between the Georgia Tech Space Systems Design Laboratory, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Assembly of any space system requires extreme care, but the small size of the LFPS makes precision integration particularly important. All of the components were subject to tight tolerancing, and most had to be assembled in a Class 100,000 clean room. As parts were successfully integrated, a simultaneous testing campaign was performed to confirm dimensional requirements, establish bursting pressures, check for leaks, ensure electrical liveliness, and determine flight-like performance.
VISORS Mission Design and Spacecraft Layout

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2021-08-01) Dutta, Abhraneel

The Virtual Super-resolution Optics with Reconfigurable Swarms (VISORS) mission aims to image the solar corona using distributed spacecraft optics. The Preliminary Design Review (PDR) held by the bus contractor (Blue Canyon Technologies, BCT) in the summer of 2021 resulted in the spacecraft covered in this report. This document aims to: 1. Introduce the mission to someone unfamiliar with the project 2. Explain why the spacecraft is laid out in its current configuration 3. Detail important work left to be done before the Critical Design Review (CDR) 4. List of important points of contact
An Orbital Capability Analysis of CubeSats Utilizing a Bimodal Monopropellant Propulsion System

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2021-07-30) Blair, William R.

The Space Systems Design Lab at Georgia Institute of Technology has performed extensive research in the development and integration of green monopropellant systems for small satellites, culminating in the design and assembly of the propulsion system for Lunar Flashlight (LFPS) [3]. The Spectre bimodal propellant system seeks to take the benefits of the LFPS and couple it with an electrospray propulsion system, giving the spacecraft capability to perform high-thrust maneuvers using standard chemical propulsion methods, and to perform efficient, low-thrust maneuvers using the electrospray system [2]. To assist with this design process, a simulation framework was developed in MATLAB to model the dynamics of the spacecraft as well as to determine logic and methods for mission planning. To this end, the vehicles motion was characterized and a performance baseline was established for various orbital maneuvers and mission designs. The development of this simulation, as well as challenges and future work, is discussed herein.
A Technology Development Plan to Enable a Europa Subsurface Probe Mission Concept Based on the Vertical Entry Robot for Navigating Europa

(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.
Attitude Guidance and Control Law Design for the Science Phases of the SWARM-EX Mission

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2021-05-01) Gundamraj, Athreya

The Space Weather Atmospheric Reconfigurable Multiscale Experiment (SWARM-EX) mission is a three 3U CubeSat mission which will collect plasma and atomic oxygen data in the upper atmosphere at unprecedented resolutions. The design and simulation of guidance laws and representative control algorithms for the major sub-modes within the science phases was conducted. While a baseline, radial-tangential-normal (RTN) tracking attitude profile meets the pointing requirements, poor solar energy absorption and downlink throughput resulted in a need for optimal attitude states which utilize the available margins on each requirement. A numerical optimization framework was developed which computes the optimal attitude by solv ing a constrained minimization problem. The results demonstrate a significant improvement when the pointing requirement margins are considered. To develop a flight software imple mentation, a constrained guidance law was devised which computes a commanded direction for one body frame vector such that a secondary body vector is maximizing alignment. The constrained guidance solution was integrated with the XACT-15 commanding architecture to create pseudocode for the complete ADC guidance software. Simulations in STK verified the ability of the ADC guidance software to output commands which satisfy the pointing require ments, and a reaction wheel controller was simulated to model spacecraft slews as the guidance software outputs commands. A representative desaturation controller was developed which enables near-complete wheel desaturation within one orbit period. These analyses resulted in a robust set of analysis tools and models that not only characterize the performance of the ADC system, but also will continue to mature as the spacecraft and mission design progress.
Development of an Open-Source Amateur Radio Transceiver for Small Satellites

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2021-05-01) Saborío Borbón, Ricardo J.

The communications subsystem is a vital component of every space mission. However, the necessary hardware and infrastructure often consumes a significant portion of the allotted budget for a project. This poses a problem for University teams developing small satellites with limited funds. Open-source projects like Planet’s OpenLST integrated hardware transceiver have attempted to solve this issue. While the OpenLST project addresses the hardware cost issue, it does not provide an affordable solution for the infrastructure problem. In this paper, a series of firmware modifications were completed for the OpenLST transceiver to allow for compatibility with amateur packet radio protocols. By implementing well-known protocols like AX.25, it is possible to leverage the existing infrastructure of amateur radio to reduce costs. The paper outlines the key differences between the existing protocol and AX.25, how these were addressed, and the tests performed to validate the firmware modifications.