Pluto Fast Flyby Mission Advanced Technologies: Requirements and Progress
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Pluto Charon small spacecraft infrared ultraviolet↗
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Lightweight Inflatable Solar Array: Providing a Flexible, Efficient Solution to Space Power Systems for Small Spacecraft
Affordable and convenient access to electrical power is critical to consumers, spacecraft, military and other applications alike. In the aerospace industry, an increased emphasis on small satellite flights and a move toward CubeSat and NanoSat technologies, the need for systems that could package into a small stowage volume while still being able to power robust space missions has become more critical. As a result, the Marshall Space Flight Center's Advanced Concepts Office identified a need for more efficient, affordable, and smaller space power systems to trade in performing design and feasibility studies. The Lightweight Inflatable Solar Array (LISA), a concept designed, prototyped, and tested at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville, Alabama provides an affordable, lightweight, scalable, and easily manufactured approach for power generation in space or on Earth. This flexible technology has many wide-ranging applications from serving small satellites to soldiers in the field. By using very thin, ultraflexible solar arrays adhered to an inflatable structure, a large area (and thus large amount of power) can be folded and packaged into a relatively small volume (shown in artist rendering in Figure 1 below). The proposed presentation will provide an overview of the progress to date on the LISA project as well as a look at its potential, with continued development, to revolutionize small spacecraft and portable terrestrial power systems.
Johnson, Les↗
Lightweight Inflatable Solar Array: Providing a Flexible, Efficient Solution to Space Power Systems for Small Spacecraft
Affordable and convenient access to electrical power is critical to consumers, spacecraft, military and other applications alike. In the aerospace industry, an increased emphasis on small satellite flights and a move toward CubeSat and NanoSat technologies, the need for systems that could package into a small stowage volume while still being able to power robust space missions has become more critical. As a result, the Marshall Space Flight Center's Advanced Concepts Office identified a need for more efficient, affordable, and smaller space power systems to trade in performing design and feasibility studies. The Lightweight Inflatable Solar Array (LISA), a concept designed, prototyped, and tested at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville, Alabama provides an affordable, lightweight, scalable, and easily manufactured approach for power generation in space or on Earth. This flexible technology has many wide-ranging applications from serving small satellites to soldiers in the field. By using very thin, ultraflexible solar arrays adhered to an inflatable structure, a large area (and thus large amount of power) can be folded and packaged into a relatively small volume (shown in artist rendering in Figure 1 below). The proposed presentation will provide an overview of the progress to date on the LISA project as well as a look at its potential, with continued development, to revolutionize small spacecraft and portable terrestrial power systems.
Johnson, Len↗
Flight Weight Design Nickel-Hydrogen Cells Using Lightweight Nickel Fiber Electrodes
The goal of this program is to develop a lightweight nickel electrode for advanced aerospace nickel-hydrogen cells and batteries with improved specific energy and specific volume. The lightweight nickel electrode will improve the specific energy of a nickel-hydrogen cell by >50%. These near-term advanced batteries will reduce power system mass and volume, while decreasing the cost, thus increasing mission capabilities and enabling small spacecraft missions. This development also offers a cost savings over the traditional sinter development methods for fabrication. The technology has been transferred to Eagle-Picher, a major aerospace battery manufacturer, who has scaled up the process developed at NASA GRC and fabricated electrodes for incorporation into flight-weight nickel-hydrogen cells.
Britton, Doris L.↗
Activities on Space Debris in U.S.
In the U.S. space debris activities are addressed at all government levels, from the Executive Office of the President to the individual federal agencies to specialized centers, laboratories, organizations, and research groups. U.S. Space Policy specifically challenges government agencies to seek to minimize the creation of space debris and to promote debris minimization practices both domestically and internationally. A set of space debris mitigation standard practices has been developed and adopted by relevant US government agencies, and their application by the commercial aerospace community is highly encouraged. A growing number of US government agencies have issued their own space debris mitigation policies, directives, regulations, and standards. Space debris research, including the definition and modeling of the current and future near-Earth space environment and the development of debris protection technologies, is principally conducted by NASA and the Department of Defense. The U.S. Space Surveillance Network continues to provide the most complete and timely characterization of the population of space debris larger than 10 cm. During the past several years major advancements have been achieved in extending this environment definition in LEO to include particles as small as only a few millimeters. The inspection of returned spacecraft surfaces continues to shed light on the even smaller debris population. With improvements in computer technology, new and more capable programs have been and are being developed to solve a number of operational and research problems. Finally, the academic and industrial sectors of the U.S. are also increasing their participation in and contributions to space debris operations and research. The cooperation of satellite and launch vehicle developers and operators is essential to the U.S. objective of promoting the preservation of the space environment for future generations.
Johnson, Nicholas L.↗
UV-LED Project
UV-LED is part of a small satellite technologydemonstration mission that willdemonstrate non-contacting charge controlof an isolated or floating mass usingnew solid-state ultra-violet light emittingdiodes (UV-LEDs). Integrated tothe Saudisat-4 spacecraft and launchedonboard the Dnepr in June 19, 2014,the project is a collaboration betweenthe NASA Ames Research Center (ARC),Stanford University, and King AbdulazizCity for Science and Technology(KACST). This technology demonstrationwill validate a novel method of chargecontrol that will improve the performanceof drag-free spacecraft allowingfor concurrent science collection duringcharge management operations as wellas reduce the mass, power and volumerequired while increasing lifetime and reliabilityof a charge management subsystem.These improvements are crucial tothe success of ground breaking missionssuch as LISA and BBO, and demonstratethe ability of low cost small satellite missionsto provide technological advancesthat far exceed mission cost.
Soulage, Michael↗
Space Technology 5 Launch and Operations
The three spacecraft that made up the Space Technology 5 (ST5) mission were successfully launched and deployed from their Pegasus launch vehicle on March 22, 2006. Final contact with the spacecraft occurred on June 30, 2006, with all Level 1 requirements met. By the end of the mission, all ST5 technologies had been validated, all on-board attitude control system (ACS) modes had been successfully demonstrated, and the desired constellation configurations had been achieved to demonstrate the ability of small spacecraft to take quality science measurements, However, during those 100 days (ST5 was planned to be a 90-day mission), there were a number of anomalies that made achieving the mission goals very challenging. This paper will discuss: the chronology of the ST5 launch and early operations, work performed to diagnose and work-around a sun sensor anomaly, spacecraft tests devised to demonstrate correct operation of all onboard ACS modes, the maneuver plan performed to achieve the desired constellation, investigations performed by members of the ST5 GN&C and Science teams of an anomalous spin down condition, and the end-of-life orbit and passivating operations performed on the three spacecraft.
O'Donnell, James R.↗
Miniature Optical Communications Transceiver (MOCT)
This project will advance the technology readiness of the Miniature Optical Communications Transceiver (MOCT) from TRL 3 to TRL 4. MOCT consists of a novel software-defined pulse modulator (SDPM),integrated laser system, and avalanche photodetection system, and is designed for optical communications between small spacecraft, including CubeSats, using a pulse position modulation (PPM) scheme. PPM encodes data in the timing of optical pulses with respect to a set of timing windows known as slots. The MOCT design focuses on power-efficiency making it particularly interesting for small satellites. We have demonstrated in the laboratory that this technology can generate shorter than 1 nanosecond-wide 1550 nanometer (nm) optical pulses with better than 50 picosecond (ps) timing accuracy. The timing resolution of this system is roughly a factor of four better than previously flown systems, meaning that it can transmit more bits of data with each optical pulse. Because this technology can both generate and time stamp the arrival of short optical pulses with 50 ps precision, it simultaneously provides power efficient communications and relative ranging between small spacecraft at the centimeter (cm) level.
Small Spacecraft↗
NanoSail-D
The "NanoSail-D" mission is currently scheduled for launch onboard a Falcon-1 Launch Vehicle in the early June 2008 timeframe. The NanoSail-D spacecraft will consist of a solar sail subsystem stowed in a 2U volume and a 1U spacecraft bus, provided by Ames Research Center. The primary objectives of the NanoSail-D technology demonstration mission are to fabricate, stow and deploy on-orbit a solar sail and perform a de-orbit maneuver to demonstrate a potential orbital debris mitigation technology. The NanoSail-D mission is being developed through a collaborative effort between the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center and the NASA Ames Research Center Small Spacecraft Office. Details of the NanoSail-D system will be presented, including: 1) design details of the solar sail reflective membrane quadrants, gossamer booms, deployment system and passive attitude control system, 2) design analysis results including structural, thermal, environmental, orbital debris and safety, and 3) test results including deployment, ascent venting, launch vibration and PPOD integration verification.
Montgomery, Edward E., IV↗
MEMS Spaceborne Testbed
Micro-electro-mechanical-systems (MEMS) technology can significantly reduce the cost to design, launch and operate space systems. MEMS technology offers low cost, small light weight and reliable devices which can significantly reduce the size, weight and cost of spacecraft while increasing their reliability through durability and redundancy. A standard spaceborne interface/cabinet that is readily available for experiments for inexpensive testing of MEMS devices in space is discussed. The MEMS testbed will provide fixtures for holding MEMS devices, ambient environment monitoring, an assortment of available operating voltages, RF and low frequency signal inputs, sources of various gases and pressure monitors, a command and control interface computer, and a data interface which will record or transmit the data and performance parameters of these small systems.
Holderman, Mark↗
Electrospray Thruster Performance with Microfabricated Emitter Arrays and Indium Propellant
The feasibility of a microfabricated indium-fueled electrospray thruster with excellent performance was demonstrated. High efficiency electrospray thrusters with microfabricated components are under development for very compact, distributable propulsion systems that can be employed on both very small and large spacecraft with 10X improvement over SOA in mass, volume and specific impulse The critical components of this technology are the microfabricated emitter arrays and the capillary force driven indium feed system. Grey scale electron-beam lithography patterning and reactive ion dry etching provided the required micron-scale etch precision and uniformity across an array of 400 emitters in 1 cm2. Initial tests of single microfabricated silicon emitters demonstrated better performance than industry standard single emitters and the performance required to achieve 200 micronewtons when scaled up to a thruster with 400 emitters in 1 cm2. Arrays of emitters tested in a preliminary prototype Microfluidic Electrospray Propulsion (MEP) thruster assembly demonstrated stable performance at estimated thrust levels of 5, 50, and 120 µN at extraction voltages less than 4 kV. Current stability was within 0.15 % at 120 µN with only 1.5% of the emitter current collected by the extractor electrode. Post-test inspections revealed that more than 99% of the 400 emitters were electrospraying during the test. Specific impulse was estimated to be >3100 s from measurements of total charge and consumed indium mass at an emitter voltage of 1470 V. The results of this investigation suggest that microfabricated indium electrospray thruster technology is both feasible and capable of excellent performance as a highly compact microthruster.
Marrese-Reading, Colleen M.↗
The SSRI Knowledge Base Tool: Current Tool Functionality Review and Planned Future Enhancements
NASA’s Small Satellite Reliability Initiative (SSRI), in conjunction with NASA’s Small Spacecraft Systems Virtual Institute (S3VI), has developed the SSRI Knowledge Base to improve mission confidence for small spacecraft. The SSRI Knowledge Base provides vetted, high-quality sources of information on elements that are key to successful small spacecraft missions. These resources include SSRI working group generated documents and presentations in addition to existing guides, publications, standards, software tools, websites, and books. The Knowledge Base is fully searchable, offers downloadable content when possible, and otherwise links to or references content directly from within the tool. All 58 of the planned topic pages that comprise the SSRI Knowledge Base have been recently completed and include over 450 unique resources that are now available for review. Over the past several months significant enhancements to the tool’s capabilities have been developed and implemented. These enhancements consist of the completed baseline content; development of an Application Programming Interface (API); improved user interfaces; scalable and searchable Best Practices and Lessons Learned (BPLL) lists with ratings; and custom website analytics. The SSRI Knowledge Base is a comprehensive and searchable online tool that consolidates and organizes resources, best practices, and lessons learned from previous small spacecraft missions sponsored by NASA, other government agencies, and academia. This free, publicly available tool is available to the entire SmallSat community at: NASA SSRI Knowledge Base | Explore. This presentation will discuss the motivation for and development of the SSRI Knowledge Base, demonstrate the existing tool, share how the smallsat community can get involved and outline plans for further enhancement development. The SSRI is a collaborative activity with broad participation from civil, Department of Defense, and both national and international commercial space systems providers and stakeholders. The S3VI is jointly sponsored by NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate and Science Mission Directorate.
Small Spacecraft↗
The Use of NASA GSFC Modular, Reconfigurable, Rapid (MR^2) Small Satellite for the Measurement of Greenhouse Gases
The Small Rocket/Spacecraft Technology (SMART) is an existing microsatellite prototype bus that provides the ability to accommodate focused science (and technology validation) missions without the need to spend large resources typical of high‐performing spacecraft. SMART represents the sum value of GSFC’s long tradition of developing systems that find efficient application in a series of missions, exemplified by two successful major programs: the Multi-mission Modular Spacecraft (MMS), and the Small Explorer Program (SMEX). SMART is based on an evolutionary architecture based drawn from these two experiences: the Modular, Reconfigurable, Rapid (MR2) architecture. This paper shows a SMART-derivative spacecraft (with re-sized structure) used to accommodate the Abundance of Methane via Interferometric Glint Observation (AMIGO) instrument. The principal objective of AMIGO is to map and quantify the abundance of the major greenhouse gases (particularly methane) and to identify and quantify their sources and sinks on a global basis. In addition, a Laser retro-reflector instrument of opportunity is included, to add to the constellation of spacecraft relevant to the definition and regular update of the International Terrestrial Reference Frame (ITRF).
small satellite↗
Agent Based Software for the Autonomous Control of Formation Flying Spacecraft
Distributed satellite systems is an enabling technology for many future NASA/DoD earth and space science missions, such as MMS, MAXIM, Leonardo, and LISA [1, 2, 3]. While formation flying offers significant science benefits, to reduce the operating costs for these missions it will be essential that these multiple vehicles effectively act as a single spacecraft by performing coordinated observations. Autonomous guidance, navigation, and control as part of a coordinated fleet-autonomy is a key technology that will help accomplish this complex goal. This is no small task, as most current space missions require significant input from the ground for even relatively simple decisions such as thruster burns. Work for the NMP DS1 mission focused on the development of the New Millennium Remote Agent (NMRA) architecture for autonomous spacecraft control systems. NMRA integrates traditional real-time monitoring and control with components for constraint-based planning, robust multi-threaded execution, and model-based diagnosis and reconfiguration. The complexity of using an autonomous approach for space flight software was evident when most of its capabilities were stripped off prior to launch (although more capability was uplinked subsequently, and the resulting demonstration was very successful).
How, Jonathan P.↗
Mars Small Spacecraft Studies: Overview
NASA’s Mars Exploration Program is studying a potential Mars Sample Return (MSR) campaign consisting of a series of missions over the next decade that would return samples collected at Mars for analyses in terrestrial laboratories. It is anticipated that during such a campaign, many in the Mars science community would seek to continue high-priority science investigations in parallel to those provided by geological and astrobiological sample return investigations. To respond to this anticipated desire of the science community, JPL is performing a study of small spacecraft mission concepts to Mars that could bridge the gap between MSR and other desired science investigations at Mars. The goal of the study is to utilize smaller, affordable missions in performing highpriority science investigations as defined in the National Academy of Sciences Decadal Survey, Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group (MEPAG) goals, and Human Exploration and Operations (HEO) Strategic Knowledge Gaps. The study targets the use of small spacecraft with greater science capability than currently achievable with CubeSats. The target spacecraft wet mass is approximately 100 to 350 kilograms. Methods of access to Mars considered in this study include a self-propelled transit from Earth geosynchronous transfer orbit (GTO) to Mars as a secondary payload in a rideshare configuration. The study investigates mission concepts, science objectives, mission designs, concept of operations, enhancing technologies, and mission costs, along with launch vehicle interfaces. The cost estimates of the mission concepts studied range from below $100 million to less than $300 million for development through launch. This paper concludes with an outline of several examples of small spacecraft mission concepts to Mars that demonstrate significant scientific capability, are technically feasible, and fit within the desired cost range.
Edwards, Charles D.↗
Spacecraft Applications of Compact Optical and Mass Spectrometers
Optical spectrometers, and mass spectrometers to a lesser extent, have a long and rich history of use aboard spacecraft. Space mission applications include deep space science spacecraft, earth orbiting satellites, atmospheric probes, and surface landers, rovers, and penetrators. The large size of capable instruments limited their use to large, expensive spacecraft. Because of the novel application of micro-fabrication technologies, compact optical and mass spectrometers are now available. The new compact devices are especially attractive for spacecraft because of their small mass and volume, as well as their low power consumption. Dispersive optical multi-channel analyzers which cover the 0.4-1.1 micrometer wavelength are now commercially available in packages as small as 3 x 6 x 18 mm exclusive of drive and recording electronics. Mass spectrometers as small as 3 x 3 mm, again without electronics, are under development. A variety of compact optical and mass spectrometers are reviewed in this paper. A number of past space applications are described, along with some upcoming opportunities that are likely candidate missions to fly this new class of compact spectrometers.
Davinic, N. M.↗
Controlling Variable Emittance (MEMS) Coatings for Space Applications
Small spacecraft, including micro and nanosats, as they are envisioned for future missions, will require an alternative means to achieve thermal control due to their small power and mass budgets. One of the proposed alternatives is Variable Emittance (Vari-E) Coatings for spacecraft radiators. Space Technology-5 (ST-5) is a technology demonstration mission through NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) that will utilize Vari-E Coatings. This mission involves a constellation of three (3) satellites in a highly elliptical orbit with a perigee altitude of approximately 200 kilometers and an apogee of approximately 38,000 kilometers. Such an environment will expose the spacecraft to a wide swing in the thermal and radiation environment of the earth's atmosphere. There are three (3) different technologies associated with this mission. The three technologies are electrophoretic, electrochromic, and Micro ElectroMechanical Systems (MEMS). The ultimate goal is to make use of Van-E coatings, in order to achieve various levels of thermal control. The focus of this paper is to highlight the Vari-E Coating MEMS instrument, with an emphasis on the Electronic Control Unit responsible for operating the MEMS device. The Test & Evaluation approach, along with the results, is specific for application on ST-5, yet the information provides a guideline for future experiments and/or thermal applications on the exterior structure of a spacecraft.
Farrar, D.↗
Wheel Abrasion Experiment Conducted on Mars
Sojourner rover showing Lewis' wheel abrasion experiment. The Mars Pathfinder spacecraft soft-landed on Mars on July 4, 1997. Among the many experiments on its small Sojourner rover are three technology experiments from the NASA Lewis Research Center, including the Wheel Abrasion Experiment (WAE). The WAE was designed, built, delivered, and operated on Mars by a team of engineers and scientists from Lewis' Photovoltaics and Space Environments Branch. This experiment collected data to assess wheel surface wear on the Sojourner. It used a specially designed rover wheel, with thin films (200 to 1000 angstroms) of aluminum, nickel, and platinum deposited on black, anodized aluminum strips attached to the rover's right center wheel. As the wheel spun in the Martian soil, a photovoltaic sensor monitored changes in film reflectivity. These changes indicated abrasion of the metal films by Martian surface material. Rolling wear data were accumulated by the WAE. Also, at frequent intervals, all the rover wheels, except the WAE test wheel, were locked to hold the rover stationary while the test wheel alone was spun and dug into the Martian regolith. These tests created wear conditions more severe than simple rolling. The WAE will contribute substantially to our knowledge of Martian surface characteristics. Marked abrasion would indicate a surface composed of hard, possibly sharply edged grains, whereas lack of abrasion would suggest a somewhat softer surface. WAE results will be correlated with ground simulations to determine which terrestrial materials behave most like those on Mars. This knowledge will enable a deeper understanding of erosion processes on Mars and the role they play in Martian surface evolution. Preliminary results show that electrostatic charging of the rover wheels sometimes caused dust to accumulate on the WAE wheel, making interpretation of the reflectance data problematic. If electrostatic charging is the mechanism for dust attraction, this indicates that the Martian dust has a size somewhat smaller than 40 microns in diameter. The WAE experiment has detected electrostatic charging in the Martian environment for the first time; however, under conditions when the wheel is relatively clean of Martian dust, flight data now indicate that abrasion has also been detected. Crude limits so far place the hardness of the Martian dust at harder than aluminum but softer than nickel, and place the grain size at somewhat smaller than 40 microns.
Ferguson, Dale C.↗