Session II: Look to the Past

Chair: L. Jane Hansen – HRP Systems, Inc.

Monday, August 11, 2008

4:45 p.m. THEMIS Post Launch Spacecraft Bus Systems Performance Validation: Comparison to Systems Design and Analysis Attributes: Warren Chen, Michael Cully – ATK; ABSTRACT: During the design of the NASA Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms (THEMIS) mission of a constellation of five identical micro-satellites studying the electromagnetic activity in near Earth space responsible for the Aurora Borealis or the Northern Lights, there were significant challenges to meet mission objectives for a low mass, low power, thermally safe, and attitude control as it pertains to multiple deployables for the constellation of five identical spacecraft. The design risks were mitigated and verified by test and analysis and on February 17, 2007 the THEMIS mission was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida. This paper will revisit some of the design and analysis attributes and determine the flight validation of these attributes based on one year plus on orbit performance. The comparison to on-orbit engineering data will be compared to design and analysis predicts in terms of the spacecraft bus performance and the differences observed. Also, included will be lessons learned from the perspective of operations.

5:00 p.m. Earth Observations with Orbiting Thermometers – Prospective FORMOSAT–3/COSMIC Follow–On Mission: Chung–Huei Vicky Chu, Nick Yen, Chun–Chieh Hsiao, Chen–Joe Fong, Shan–Kuo Eddy Yang, Tie–Yu Liu, Mark Lin, Jiun–Jih Miau – National Space Organization (NSPO); ABSTRACT: In the previous century, the rapid development of electronics and computers enable the sounding balloons to probe into the sky to collect atmospheric data to forecast the weather and monitor the climate changes. Those balloon soundings are limited above the landmass and much fewer above oceans and the Polar Regions. In the 21st Century, as the booming of micro-satellite constellation, FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC constellation has brought the atmospheric measurements from local to global and even penetrated into the ionosphere to collect data for space weather. The remarkable impacts of the globally collected data from FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC have been demonstrated. The temperature structure over the Polar Regions has been constructed at the first time and the measurements have improved the regional weather model. It has also proven that the forecast accuracy including the severe weather such as accumulated rainfalls and the forecast of hurricane and typhoon paths, etc., can be enhanced. FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC Follow-On mission is a project to carry on FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC mission, which design life ends in 2011. The mission will collect more data so that the sounding distribution is denser. The effective coverage area of one sounding in the contemplated 12- or 18-micro satellites constellation of the Follow-On mission can be reduced from 550 km x 550 km (FORMOSAT-3/COSMICs capability) to 250 km x 250 km. In this paper we will address the lessons learned from FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC constellation, both in space and ground segments, and how to proceed to the Follow-On mission to become an operational constellation as the most accurate orbiting thermometers to measure the atmosphere and ionosphere more optimally and efficiently.

5:15 p.m.STPSat-1 – One Year of Successful Operations: Rick Barnisin, Frank Scalici, Patricia Remias – AeroAstro, Inc.; ABSTRACT: STPSat-1 was launched on March 8, 2007, into a 560 km orbit as one of the payloads on the maiden flight of the EELV Secondary Payload Adapter (ESPA) ring. This Class “C”, single-string satellite with a prelaunch calculated reliability less than 0.75 is currently on orbit and exceeding the per-orbit data collection requirements of the two active experiments onboard: the Spatial Heterodyne Imager for Mesospheric Radicals (SHIMMER) and the Computerized Ionospheric Tomography Receiver in Space (CITRIS). The Air Force/AeroAstro team completed the STPSat-1 Launch and Early Orbit checkout (LEO) activities within three weeks after launch, supporting an early start of the nominal operations phase and experiment data collection. On multiple occasions STPSat-1 has shown robustness in software and hardware implementation, allowing the satellite to continue its mission while dealing with issues that would have stymied a less robust design. This paper will follow the in-orbit history of STPSat-1’s proposed one-year mission life from launch to the expected end of life, currently scheduled for June 2008. The challenges presented to the mission and the implementation of the solutions will be discussed.

5:30 p.m. Extended Life Flight Results from the GeneSat–1 Biological Microsatellite Mission: Giovanni Minelli, Christopher Beasley, Karolyn Ronzano, Christopher Kitts, Richard Rasay, Ignacio Mas, Phelps Williams, John Shepard, Paul Mahacek, Jose Acain – Robotic Systems Laboratory/Santa Clara University; Charlie Friedericks, Macarena Parra, Linda Timucin, Mike Henschke, Ed Luzzi, Nghia Mai, Mike McIntyre, Robert Ricks, David Squires, Chris Storment, John Tucker, Bruce Yost, Greg Defouw – NASA Ames Research Center; Antonio Ricco – Stanford University; ABSTRACT: The Genesat-1 technology demonstration mission validated the use of research quality instrumentation for in situ biological research and processing. After its launch from Wallops Flight Facility as a secondary payload off a Minotaur launch vehicle on December 16, 2006, all primary science and engineering test objectives were completed successfully within one month of operation. Since that time, additional trend analyses and experiments have been performed to further quantify the performance of the bus; such quantification is of particular interest for at least five heritage-based missions currently in development, three of which are set to launch in 2008 and two slated for 2009. This paper revisits the GeneSat-1 mission system and presents results from the extended mission.

AlternateCanadian Advanced Nanospace Experiment 2: On–Orbit Experiences with a Three–Kilogram Satellite: Karan Sarda, Cordell Grant, Robert Zee, Daniel Kekez, Stuart Eagleson – Space Flight Laboratory/University of Toronto; ABSTRACT: The objective of the Canadian Advanced Nanospace eXperiment (CanX) program is to develop highly capable nanospacecraft, or spacecraft under 10 kilograms, in short timeframes of 2-3 years. CanX missions offer low-cost and rapid access to space for scientists, technology developers, and operationally responsive missions. The Space Flight Laboratory (SFL) at the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies (UTIAS) has developed the Canadian Advanced Nanospace eXperiment 2 (CanX-2) nanosatellite that launched in April 2008. CanX-2, a 3.5-kg, 10 x 10 x 34 cm satellite, features a collection of scientific and engineering payloads that push the envelope of capability for this class of spacecraft. The primary mission of CanX-2 is to test and demonstrate several enabling technologies for precise formation flight. These technologies include a custom cold-gas propulsion system, a 30 mNms nanosatellite reaction wheel as part of a three-axis stabilized momentum-bias attitude control system, and a commercially available GPS receiver. The secondary objective of CanX-2 is to fly a number of university experiments including an atmospheric spectrometer. At the time of writing CanX-2 has been in orbit for three weeks and has performed very well during preliminary commissioning. The mission, the engineering and scientific payloads, and the preliminary on-orbit commissioning experiences of CanX-2 are presented in this paper.

Alternate TACSAT–2/TIE Payload Development: Enabling Rapid Development and Testing of Space Payload Hardware and Software: Christopher Huffine, Timothy Duffey – Naval Research Laboratory; Stuart Nicholson – S. Nicholson Consulting; ABSTRACT: The launch of the Tactical Satellite-2 (TacSat-2) carrying the Navys Target Indicator Experiment (TIE) payload has provided the first opportunity to test some of the constructs used in its development, and that of its predecessor, TacSat-1 Flying the TIE payload for the past eleven months has demonstrated, and validated, the approaches taken, proving that flexibility, extensibility, and software portability can decrease development time, increase the leveraging of existing tools, and help control software development costs. However, our experience has shown that this flexibility can create challenges in managing day-to-day payload operations.


		22nd Annual Conference on Small Satellites Technical Sessions Session II: Look to the Past Chair: L. Jane Hansen – HRP Systems, Inc. Monday, August 11, 2008 4:45 p.m. THEMIS Post Launch Spacecraft Bus Systems Performance Validation: Comparison to Systems Design and Analysis Attributes Warren Chen, Michael Cully – ATK ABSTRACT: During the design of the NASA Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms (THEMIS) mission of a constellation of five identical micro-satellites studying the electromagnetic activity in near Earth space responsible for the Aurora Borealis or the Northern Lights, there were significant challenges to meet mission objectives for a low mass, low power, thermally safe, and attitude control as it pertains to multiple deployables for the constellation of five identical spacecraft. The design risks were mitigated and verified by test and analysis and on February 17, 2007 the THEMIS mission was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida. This paper will revisit some of the design and analysis attributes and determine the flight validation of these attributes based on one year plus on orbit performance. The comparison to on-orbit engineering data will be compared to design and analysis predicts in terms of the spacecraft bus performance and the differences observed. Also, included will be lessons learned from the perspective of operations. 5:00 p.m. Earth Observations with Orbiting Thermometers – Prospective FORMOSAT–3/COSMIC Follow–On Mission Chung–Huei Vicky Chu, Nick Yen, Chun–Chieh Hsiao, Chen–Joe Fong, Shan–Kuo Eddy Yang, Tie–Yu Liu, Mark Lin, Jiun–Jih Miau – National Space Organization (NSPO) ABSTRACT: In the previous century, the rapid development of electronics and computers enable the sounding balloons to probe into the sky to collect atmospheric data to forecast the weather and monitor the climate changes. Those balloon soundings are limited above the landmass and much fewer above oceans and the Polar Regions. In the 21st Century, as the booming of micro-satellite constellation, FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC constellation has brought the atmospheric measurements from local to global and even penetrated into the ionosphere to collect data for space weather. The remarkable impacts of the globally collected data from FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC have been demonstrated. The temperature structure over the Polar Regions has been constructed at the first time and the measurements have improved the regional weather model. It has also proven that the forecast accuracy including the severe weather such as accumulated rainfalls and the forecast of hurricane and typhoon paths, etc., can be enhanced. FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC Follow-On mission is a project to carry on FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC mission, which design life ends in 2011. The mission will collect more data so that the sounding distribution is denser. The effective coverage area of one sounding in the contemplated 12- or 18-micro satellites constellation of the Follow-On mission can be reduced from 550 km x 550 km (FORMOSAT-3/COSMICs capability) to 250 km x 250 km. In this paper we will address the lessons learned from FORMOSAT-3/COSMIC constellation, both in space and ground segments, and how to proceed to the Follow-On mission to become an operational constellation as the most accurate orbiting thermometers to measure the atmosphere and ionosphere more optimally and efficiently. 5:15 p.m.STPSat-1 – One Year of Successful Operations Rick Barnisin, Frank Scalici, Patricia Remias – AeroAstro, Inc. ABSTRACT: STPSat-1 was launched on March 8, 2007, into a 560 km orbit as one of the payloads on the maiden flight of the EELV Secondary Payload Adapter (ESPA) ring. This Class “C”, single-string satellite with a prelaunch calculated reliability less than 0.75 is currently on orbit and exceeding the per-orbit data collection requirements of the two active experiments onboard: the Spatial Heterodyne Imager for Mesospheric Radicals (SHIMMER) and the Computerized Ionospheric Tomography Receiver in Space (CITRIS). The Air Force/AeroAstro team completed the STPSat-1 Launch and Early Orbit checkout (LEO) activities within three weeks after launch, supporting an early start of the nominal operations phase and experiment data collection. On multiple occasions STPSat-1 has shown robustness in software and hardware implementation, allowing the satellite to continue its mission while dealing with issues that would have stymied a less robust design. This paper will follow the in-orbit history of STPSat-1’s proposed one-year mission life from launch to the expected end of life, currently scheduled for June 2008. The challenges presented to the mission and the implementation of the solutions will be discussed. 5:30 p.m. Extended Life Flight Results from the GeneSat–1 Biological Microsatellite Mission Giovanni Minelli, Christopher Beasley, Karolyn Ronzano, Christopher Kitts, Richard Rasay, Ignacio Mas, Phelps Williams, John Shepard, Paul Mahacek, Jose Acain – Robotic Systems Laboratory/Santa Clara University; Charlie Friedericks, Macarena Parra, Linda Timucin, Mike Henschke, Ed Luzzi, Nghia Mai, Mike McIntyre, Robert Ricks, David Squires, Chris Storment, John Tucker, Bruce Yost, Greg Defouw – NASA Ames Research Center; Antonio Ricco – Stanford University ABSTRACT: The Genesat-1 technology demonstration mission validated the use of research quality instrumentation for in situ biological research and processing. After its launch from Wallops Flight Facility as a secondary payload off a Minotaur launch vehicle on December 16, 2006, all primary science and engineering test objectives were completed successfully within one month of operation. Since that time, additional trend analyses and experiments have been performed to further quantify the performance of the bus; such quantification is of particular interest for at least five heritage-based missions currently in development, three of which are set to launch in 2008 and two slated for 2009. This paper revisits the GeneSat-1 mission system and presents results from the extended mission. AlternateCanadian Advanced Nanospace Experiment 2: On–Orbit Experiences with a Three–Kilogram Satellite Karan Sarda, Cordell Grant, Robert Zee, Daniel Kekez, Stuart Eagleson – Space Flight Laboratory/University of Toronto ABSTRACT: The objective of the Canadian Advanced Nanospace eXperiment (CanX) program is to develop highly capable nanospacecraft, or spacecraft under 10 kilograms, in short timeframes of 2-3 years. CanX missions offer low-cost and rapid access to space for scientists, technology developers, and operationally responsive missions. The Space Flight Laboratory (SFL) at the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies (UTIAS) has developed the Canadian Advanced Nanospace eXperiment 2 (CanX-2) nanosatellite that launched in April 2008. CanX-2, a 3.5-kg, 10 x 10 x 34 cm satellite, features a collection of scientific and engineering payloads that push the envelope of capability for this class of spacecraft. The primary mission of CanX-2 is to test and demonstrate several enabling technologies for precise formation flight. These technologies include a custom cold-gas propulsion system, a 30 mNms nanosatellite reaction wheel as part of a three-axis stabilized momentum-bias attitude control system, and a commercially available GPS receiver. The secondary objective of CanX-2 is to fly a number of university experiments including an atmospheric spectrometer. At the time of writing CanX-2 has been in orbit for three weeks and has performed very well during preliminary commissioning. The mission, the engineering and scientific payloads, and the preliminary on-orbit commissioning experiences of CanX-2 are presented in this paper. Alternate TACSAT–2/TIE Payload Development: Enabling Rapid Development and Testing of Space Payload Hardware and Software Christopher Huffine, Timothy Duffey – Naval Research Laboratory; Stuart Nicholson – S. Nicholson Consulting ABSTRACT: The launch of the Tactical Satellite-2 (TacSat-2) carrying the Navys Target Indicator Experiment (TIE) payload has provided the first opportunity to test some of the constructs used in its development, and that of its predecessor, TacSat-1 Flying the TIE payload for the past eleven months has demonstrated, and validated, the approaches taken, proving that flexibility, extensibility, and software portability can decrease development time, increase the leveraging of existing tools, and help control software development costs. However, our experience has shown that this flexibility can create challenges in managing day-to-day payload operations.