Master's Projects

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Master's Projects

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The Development and Characterization of the Laser Ranging System on the RANGE CubeSat Mission

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2016-12-15) Levine, Zachary A.

In Spring 2016, Georgia Tech Space Systems Design Laboratory (SSDL) will begin operations on the Ranging And Nanosatellite Guidance Experiment (RANGE) Mission. A crucial element of this mission is the Inter satellite ranging system. This system will determine the relative distance between the two RANGE sister CubeSats providing validation that such a system can function in orbit on a CubeSat. This document describes the factors considered in choosing the Voxtel Laser Range Finder (LRF) Module as the flight unit for both satellites, the integration and testing of this system, and the preliminary analysis of laboratory testing data to predict on-orbit performance.
Design and Application of a Circular Aperture Sun Sensor

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2016-12) Herman, Michael
The Development and Characterization of the Laser Ranging System on the RANGE CubeSat Mission

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2016-12) Levine, Zachary A.
Refinements to the General Methodology Behind Strapdown Airborne Gravimetry

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2016-08-05) Seywald, Kevin Lee

Measuring Earth’s gravitational field has important applications in fields ranging from geodesy to exploration geophysics. Gravity field disturbances are typically no more than 100 mGal, hence requiring extremely precise sensors. The estimation of error sources inherent in these sensors, such as bias, scale factor, and drift rate, significantly improve the accuracy of these measurements, allowing for more precise gravity estimates. This research builds upon prior work using a strapdown Inertial Navigation System (INS) paired with Global Positioning Systems (GPS) for airborne platforms. In order to test and validate the processing algorithms, various simulated test cases were created. Several refinements were made to the traditional approach found in the literature, making the process more robust. Most notably, an analytical solution was developed for the quaternion integration problem, which is typically implemented using numerical methods. The analytical solution limits the integration error to machine precision, and removes any error propagation. Furthermore, the error equations implemented in the Kalman Filter were refined such that they better capture the true dynamics of the error-states. These changes to the existing methodology were validated by the proposed algorithm’s ability to accurately estimate the parameters used to generate the simulated flight data.
Refinements to the General Methodology Behind Strapdown Airborne Gravimetry

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2016-08) Seywald, Kevin Lee
Mechanical Design of a Cubesat Aeroshell for an Earth Demonstration of Single-Stage Drag Modulated Aerocapture

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2016-08-01) Woollard, Bryce A.

The following article documents the conceptual study of a smallsat entry vehicle to be implemented for demonstration of single-stage drag modulated aerocapture at Earth. The specific nature of the contents below focuses on the mechanical design and analysis of the aeroshell and drag device, as well as the mechanisms by which all parts are to be manufactured, assembled and actuated in order to perform the intended orbital maneuver. The results of this study show that accomplishing aerocapture with a cubesat entry vehicle appears to be feasible with a 2U payload and would require approximately 20 kg and 0.1 m3 of secondary payload mass and volume, respectively. First order stagnation point thermal protection sizing suggests that 4.2 cm of PICA would be required globally around the vehicle, although potential exists to optimize this value relative to geometric location. Static stability analysis indicates that the designed vehicle is nose-forward stable for a majority of the atmospheric interface with outstanding questions pertaining to atmospheric egress. Manufacturing costs for a full scale aeroshell would be approximately $15,000 and require roughly 2 months of lead time, dependent on presently available machine shop capabilities.
Orbit Design for a Phobos-Deimos Cycler Mission

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2016-04-16) Sabitbek, Bolys

Little is know about the Martian moons Phobos and Deimos, even though they have the potential to provide insight into the evolution of the Martian system, and could potentially serve as a staging site for a future Mars manned mission. While attempts to visit Phobos with dedicated missions have been attempted, to date none have been successful, and no dedicated mission to Deimos has been flown. As such, much of what is known about the structure and composition of either moon comes from a small collection of images. This study explores a class of stable cycler orbits that could visit both moons on a regular cadence, and can be tuned to fly-by one moon more frequently, or to vary the ground track coverage to obtain improved surface coverage. While the orbits described can be reached by a dedicated spacecraft with sufficient delta-V for a Mars insertion, the moti vation here is that the spacecraft is already in an initial insertion orbit, such as a small-satellite rideshare on an existing Mars mission. Under this assumption, the results presented illustrate that the exploration of both Phobos and Deimos can be achieved with a spacecraft with capabilities of modern nanosatellites (cubesats).
Orbit Design for a Phobos-Deimos Cycler Mission

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2016-04) Sabitbek, Bolys
Supersonic Vehicle Configuration Transitions to Enable Supersonic Retropropulsion during Mars Entry, Descent, and Landing

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2016-02-29) Blette, David J.

This paper investigates types of supersonic vehicle configuration transition events nec essary to initiation supersonic retropropulsion as part of human-class Mars entry, descent, and landing. This research assumes an entry vehicle with a 105 mT entry mass and an ellipsled aeroshell similar to the NASA EDL Design Reference Architecture 5.0. All entry architectures are assumed all-propulsive. Three transition architectures are considered: a pitch-around maneuver, an aeroshell front-exit, and an aeroshell hinged-exit. Propulsive subsystem thrust requirements are defined for the pitch-around maneuver. For transitions involving solid mass ejections, debris flight envelopes are determined and compared to a descent vehicle trajectory under a modified gravity turn. It is shown that far-field recon tact risks exist for the proposed architectures involving solid mass ejections and recontact mitigation schemes are required.
Entry Characteristics of a Half-Ogive Aeroshell at Earth

(Georgia Institute of Technology, 2016-02-05) Booher, Robert M.