Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics

Prospects for future CubeSat technology developments

Klaus Brie
Technische Universitt Berlin, Dptm. of Aeronautics and Astronautics Chair of Space Engineering Marchstrae 12, D-10587 Berlin, Germany Tel. +49-30-314-21339, e-mail: klaus.briess@ilr.tu-berlin.de

The QB50 Workshop in Brussels 17./18. Nov. 2009

Dptm. of Aeronautics and Astronautics

Challenges on Space Technologies

OECD report: "Space 2030: Tackling Society's Challenges" [CORDIS-News, 23.06.2005] Space technology can be used in particular to tackle five major challenges, according to the report: 1. environmental problems, including natural disasters, 2. the use of natural resources, 3. the increasing mobility of goods and people, 4. growing security threats, 5. and the development of the information society. It is recommended that governments do three broad things: implement a sustainable space infrastructure; encourage public use and encourage private sector participation.
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New Opportunities by CubeSats

Inspection and repair of space infrastructure Dedicated Environment and disaster monitoring missions Increase the time coverage or the area coverage of large single Earth remote sensing satellites by supplementation with nano or pico satellites in formation Environmental monitoring with high time coverage by satellite formations Low-cost missions in science niches In-orbit verification of new technologies Store and forward communication

Pico Satellite constellation for space weather observation (Design project of TU Berlin)

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Prospective Technologies for Cubesat Bus

Spacecraft

New payload concepts for nano/pico satellite platforms allow special contributions to scientific or operational tasks Can the spacecraft bus fulfill the payload requirements, e.g. power, data handling, data transmitting and other?

Payload

Satellite bus

Scientific Instruments

Structure & Mechanisms

Transponder

Electrical Power System

Meteorological Instr.

Thermal Control System

Navigation Payload

Data Handling System

Military Payload

TT&C-System

Attitude Control System

Propulsion System
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Structure and Mechanisms

Defined by California Polytechnic State University and Stanford University total mass: max. 1kg Cubic-shaped body with 10 cm edge mechanical and material property specifications ITAR free flight proven deployment mechanism for single CubeSats available, upgrade for double cubesats under development Triple picosat deployer under development (ISIS, Netherlands)
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Basic Structure of a Cubesat of TU Berlin

Double P-Pod Deployer [source: Astro- und Feinwerktechnik GmbH, 2009]

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Propulsion System
Purpose: For orbit maintenance and formation flying In the future: a need for de-orbiting too State-of-the-Art: industrial cold gas system for pico satellite available (Vacco, USA) Research and development activities: Electric propulsion systems are in research World wide: solid and liquid propulsion systems are under development Among others: Aerospace Institute Berlin and TNO (Netherlands) are developing a pico satellite propulsion systems
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Development model of a pico satellite propulsion system basing of the Cool Gas Generator technology of TNO (TNO and TU Berlin)

Dptm. of Aeronautics and Astronautics

Electrical Power System

Purpose: Supply the satellite with electrical power at night and day time State-of-the-Art: Body-mounted Si- or GaAs- solar arrays Average power supply: 1,6W Energy storage: space-preparated LiIon/Li polymer accumulator Research and development activities: Foldable solar arrays or thin film solar generators Unfoldable or inflatable structure hardening by influence of UV light like the Power Sphere Concept of NASA
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a)

b)

spacecraft a) before and b) after deployment of the power sphere c) inside view of the sphere [Images: NASA]

c)
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Tracking, Telemetry and Command System (TT&C)

Purpose: On-board housekeeping data acquisition Commanding of the satellite Communication with ground system State-of-the-Art: Using UHF band, preferable in amateur frequency ranges Max. downlink rate: 9,6 kbps First models of S-band transmitters for 256 kbps in orbit (Toronto) Research and development activities: Cubesat S-band transmitter for 1 Mbps (Berlin) is already space qualified on ground and on rocket, on-orbit verification in preparation
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UHF-Transceiver for Cubesats (state-of-the-art)

S-Band transmitter for Cubesats for 1 Mbps (TU Berlin)

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Thermal Control System

Purpose: Keep the spacecraft temperature in the accepted ranges State-of-the-Art: Passive thermal Control Systems consisting of MLI, temperature sensors, heat storage elements Research and development activities: Heat storage and control of radiation of cubesats Active thermal control elements in MEMS technologies
MEMS Louver

http://gsfctechnology.gsfc.nasa.gov/focusAreas /laisThermal.htm

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Attitude Control System

Purpose: Control of attitude for energy generation and pointing of antennas and payloads State-of-the-Art: Passive (no attitude control) three-axis-stabilization by magnetic coils Research and development activities: Sun sensors, magnetic field sensors for pico satellites, attitude sensors Reaction wheels for pico satellites just now in the on-orbit verification phase High precision attitude control systems under development
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Integrated magnetic coil system for a Cubesat of TU Berlin

3-reaction wheel system for pico satellites (TU Berlin, Astrofein GmbH, DLR) 10

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BEESAT Berlin Experimental and Educational Satellite

Current status: launched on 23. September 2009 with PSLV-C14 mission in commissioning phase, some routine experiments are started Mission Objectives On-orbit verification of new developed reaction wheels for pico satellites Education of students in satellite design and operation Verification of picosatellite technologies
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BEESAT flight model

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Prospective Payload for Double Cubesats: UV-VIS-Mini-Hadamard-Spectrometer (HTS)

Patent pending from Germany [Wut02] Suitable and qualified for space applications Main units: Diode array spectrometer with Detector line Imaging grating 2-dim. Hadamard Mask as entrance aperture
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Hadamard-TransformSpectrometer [image: Wut02]

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UV-VIS Mini Hadamard Spectrometer (HTS)

Functional principle
m measurement data H Hadamard Matrix s signal values (original) sr reconstructed signals n noise

Measurement

Reconstruction

m = Hs+n

s = H 1 m

Example:

m1 0 1 1 s 1 n1 m2 = 1 0 1 s 2 + n2 m 1 1 0 s n 3 3 3

1 m1 s r1 1 1 1 s r2 = 1 1 1 m2 s 2 1 1 1 m3 r3

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UV-VIS Mini Hadamard Spectrometer (HTS)

Principle: The light goes through a programmable Simicro slit array, is modulated in space and in n sum spectra divided the Signal Noise Ratio will be increased

[image: Wut02]
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UV-VIS Mini Hadamard Spectrometer (HTS)

Radiometric performance in comparison between a micro-spectometer and the HT-spectometer [Wut02]

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Prospective Payload: MEMS-Polychromator in Orbit

MEMS-Polychromator [Pis03]

Programmable micro spectrometer basing on electrostatic controllable micro grid elements

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Prospective Payload Technology for Double or Triple Cubesats: a Deployable Space Telescope
Deployable space telescope for micro nano and pico satellites Applications: Earth monitoring and extraterrestrial observation Project of TU Berlin with support by SMEs and ESA Focal length: ca. 0,8m (lab model for a pico satellite) ca. 3m for micro satellite Pushbroom system with 1 panchromatic and 4 multispectral channels
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Prospective Technology: Dobson Space Telescope on a CubeSat of TU Berlin Collimation test facility of Dobson Space Telescope
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Summary
ca. 80 universities and few companies and other establishments are developing and investigating pico satellite missions The new class of satellites begins to become interesting in the world Prospective new technologies in sensor or bus technologies helps to overcome limitations related to size, power and mass of CubeSats CubeSats will fill operational and science niches of the conventional and small satellite missions

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Sources and References

[Geo03] [Hei00] T. George, Overview of MEMS/NEMS Technology Development for Space Applications at NASA/JPL, SPIE, 2003. H. Heidt, J. Puig-Suari, Prof., A.S. Moore, Prof., S. Nakasuka, Prof., R.J. Twiggs, Prof., CubeSat: A new Generation of Picosatellite for Education and Industry Low-Cost Space Experimentation, 14TH Annual/USU Conference on Small Satellites, Logan, Utah, 2000. A.P. Pisano, Ph. D., MEMS 2003 and Beyond A DARPA Vision of the Future of MEMS, http://www.darpa.mil/MTO/MEMS, 2003. E.J. Simburger, J.H. Matsumoto, T.W. Giants, A. Garcia III, S. Liu, S.P. Rawal, A.R. Perry, C.H. Marshall, J.K. Lin, S.E. Scarborough, H.B. Curtis, T.W. Kerslake, T.T. Peterson, D. Scheiman Engineering Development Model Testing of the PowerSphere, 45th AIAA/ASME/ASCE/AHS/ASC Structures, Structural Dynamics & Materials Confer, Palm Springs, California, April 2004. A. Wuttig, R. Riesenberg, Sensitive Hadamard Transform Imaging Spectrometer with a simple MEMS, Paper, Crete 2002.

[Pis03] [Sim04]

[Wut02]

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