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No full textPoster presented during the 2025 SmallSat Conference
SpaceNet Testbed – Small Satellite Constellation Network Emulation of Real-World Scenarios
Get PDFPoster presented during the 2025 SmallSat Conference
Building Europe’s First ISAM Facility – From Concept to Delivery in 12 Months
No full textPoster presented during the 2025 SmallSat Conference
Analysis of Thrust Performance and Noise Generation of UAM Composite Propellers Fabricated Using Composite-Based Additive Manufacturing
No full textUrban air mobility (UAM) is an emerging transportation concept that uses lightweight, efficient aircraft for transporting goods and passengers and performing other logistical activities. One of the biggest challenges in developing UAM from a structural perspective is manufacturing strong and reliable propellers that are lightweight and durable. Traditional manufacturing methods for composite propellers are expensive, time-consuming, and difficult to scale. This study explores a new approach using Composite-Based Additive Manufacturing (CBAM) to produce high-performance propellers more efficiently. CBAM allows for the fabrication of strong, lightweight composite propellers using short manufacturing lead times. However, one challenge with this technique is that the propellers have a relatively rough surface, which can adversely affect airflow and performance. Two polymer surface coatings were evaluated to improve the smoothness of CBAM propellers. The microstructure and surface roughness were evaluated, and thrust force and noise levels of coated and uncoated composite propellers were measured and compared with commercially available comparable propellers. This research aims to show how CBAM could be a time-efficient and scalable solution for producing next-generation propellers for UAM applications
Kentucky Re-Entry Probe Experiment-3: The Third Hypersonic Flight of the KRUPS Capsules
No full textThe Kentucky Re-entry Universal Payload System (KRUPS) is a small flight capsule with dimensions of 11 by 8.5 inches and a sphere-cone geometry. KRUPS aims to serve as a cost-effective testbed for hypersonic atmospheric entry experiments, collecting thermal response and flight data during re-entry and testing novel thermal protection systems (TPS). The forebody of the capsule is fitted with an instrumented TPS containing thermocouples and pressure ports. Furthermore, the instrumentation suite contains a high-g accelerometer, a GPS, an IMU, and a spectrometer.
The KRUPS project started in 2013. Since then, the capsule has flown five sounding rocket missions, a high-altitude balloon mission, and two orbital flights. The first orbital flight, Kentucky Re-Entry Probe Experiment (KREPE) 1, happened in 2021. Three capsules flew to the International Space Station aboard the Cygnus resupply vehicle. After a few months, Cygnus re-entered Earth and broke up because of high aerodynamic heating, releasing the capsules into the atmosphere. A total of 20 data packets were collected and transmitted by the capsules, deeming the mission successful. A second orbital flight named KREPE-2 took place in 2024. KREPE-2 represented a substantial leap from KREPE-1 with many advancements, including a much larger instrumentation suite and more capsules being flown. The five KRUPS capsules from the KREPE-2 mission transmitted 34 data packets containing data from all six sensors.
Following the success of the last KREPE missions, the KRUPS team has begun developing a new iteration named KREPE-3. The KREPE-3 mission aims to fly twelve different capsules. Nine capsules will have the regular KRUPS geometry, whereas the other three will explore different shapes. The first capsule with a different shape will be a prototype that involves an expandable forebody for deceleration in its expanded form. The second will have a subscale version of the DragonFly geometry. The third will have a slender body shape. Many different TPS materials will be used, including the LI2200 material, four experimental TPS, a 3D printed TPS, and six carbon-based TPS.
Additionally, better communication methods are being developed. The KREPE-3 mission will include mesh communication between the capsules, sharing data to increase the amount of relevant data transmitted via the Iridium network. Each capsule will have a Wi-Fi module for large data transmission at close range and a LoRa radio module with a moderate transmission bandwidth for longer distances. The mesh communication method will ensure that data from a capsule can be transmitted even if it fails to establish communication through the Iridium satellites.
The KREPE-3 mission is scheduled to be part of the Cygnus NG-24 resupply mission in early 2026, with re-entry planned for late summer 2026. The success of KREPE-3 will elevate KRUPS from an established testbed for hypersonic entry experiments to an efficient platform for testing novel materials and concepts while offering a thorough dataset for validation and analysis
In 8 Years From Design to Launch: Objectives, Challenges and Risk Mitigation of the Educational Student CubeSat Project SOURCE
No full textThe Stuttgart Operated University Research CubeSat for Evaluation and Education (SOURCE) project is a 3U+ CubeSat developed in collaboration between the Small Satellite Student Society at the University of Stuttgart (KSat e.V.) and the University of Stuttgart’s Institute of Space Systems. This educational satellite mission is designed to provide students with hands-on experience in all phases of satellite development, from the initial concept to the final mission operations. SOURCE’s development began in 2018 and has been supported by ESA’s Fly Your Satellite! program since 2020. Over the past seven years, more than 500 students have had the opportunity to work on the project, developing and testing both hardware and software. The majority of the hardware is developed in-house by undergraduate and graduate students, overseen by PhD candidates / associate researchers from the University of Stuttgart. All qualification and acceptance testing, derived from the European Cooperation for Space Standardization (ECSS), is performed by students as well. To mitigate risks, an extensive full-functional testing campaign on the flat-sat model will be conducted before integration of the flight model. In December 2024, SOURCE passed the Manufacturing Readiness Review, which concludes the qualification phase and allows the beginning of manufacturing of the Flight Hardware. In accordance with the ECSS, system, mission and environmental testing of the assembled flight model are to follow, with the launch to a 500 km SSO planned for Q2 2026. The mission operation is divided into two phases: the payload operation above 200 km and the re-entry phase below 200 km. During the first phase, a commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) camera will be used for meteor observation and star and horizon tracking. A second COTS camera will take color images of the Earth for public relation purposes. Three additional payloads from SOURCE’s external partners will be operated above 200 km: The German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Bremen is characterizing new thin-film solar arrays. A 3D-printed carbon fiber multifunctional sandwich structure is being tested by the DLR Stuttgart in cooperation with the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation (IPA) and the University of Stuttgart. Furthermore, Airbus Defence and Space is profiling a smart heater for spacecraft applications. During this phase of the mission, S-Band frequencies will be used for commanding, telemetry and payload data. For the re-entry phase below 200km, sensor arrays are distributed along the surface of SOURCE. These analyze pressure, heat flux and temperature at different points on the satellite. Two additional sensors placed in the front and back measure the atmosphere’s atomic oxygen concentration. SOURCE is de-orbited passively by increased atmospheric drag at lower altitudes to naturally end its mission. To ensure continuous data collection during the early re-entry phase, SOURCE employs the IRIDIUM inter-satellite network. This paper details the objectives of the SOURCE mission, emphasizing the educational aspects of the project and focusing on risk mitigation and test strategy for a student build Flight Model. Moreover, it provides a series of lessons learned from the development of the satellite
ARIZONA DUST: Students Advancing Climate Science With CubeSat Technology
No full textARIZONA DUST (Arid Region Infrared Zone Observation of Notable Arizona Desert Urban Storms and Temperatures) is a student-led mission team of 25 out of Arizona State University with the goal to understand how Earth’s climate is evolving and why. The 6U CubeSat ‘Dusty’ will orbit at a 400 km altitude in a non-sun synchronous orbit with a 40° inclination designed to pass over Arizona (as well as Australia). The mission is designed to study monsoon and dust storms to enhance understanding of their effects on temperature as they relate to global climate change. With the orbital path also crossing Australia, it gives the mission a unique opportunity to compare environmental factors in two arid regions and identify key differences. The science of this mission is rooted in high priority science questions as defined by the NASA Earth Science Decadal. The first focuses on understanding exactly when and where convective storms, heavy precipitation, and clouds occur. The second focuses on the importance of climate feedback and sensitivity, specifically the need to improve prediction of climate responses to natural and anthropogenic forcings in terms of temperature change.
In response to these high-priority questions, ARIZONA DUST will carry an instrument suite and associated systems specifically designed to address these concerns.This comprehensive approach will enable scientists to apply the fine-scale observations collected of Arizona to broader climate models, further enhancing the understanding of how local climates respond to both natural and anthropogenic forcings
Building Oklahoma’s First CubeSat Program: A Student’s Perspective
Get PDFOKSat is a student-led, multi-university effort to launch Oklahoma’s first CubeSat. Built from the ground up, the program has provided students with hands-on experience in space systems engineering, leadership, and cross-institutional collaboration. This poster shares lessons learned from establishing and growing the program, highlighting strategies that support sustainable, student-driven satellite development—especially in regions without established aerospace programs
Real-Time Space Weather Event Detection and Attribution Using FPGA-Based Machine Learning on CubeSats
Get PDFUtah State University has been developing hardware accelerators and machine learning algorithms for real-time detection and attribution of space weather events on small satellites. This research, funded under the Low-power Array for CubeSat Edge Computing Architecture, Algorithms, and Applications (LACE-C3A), is a NASA STMD-funded effort as part of the University Smallsat Technology Partnerships (USTP). In this paper, we present an FPGA implementation of an AI/ML algorithm for intelligent decision-making, enabling real-time space weather monitoring and now-casting of Equatorial Plasma Bubbles (EPBs). EPBs are low-density plasma structures that form at low latitudes within the Earth’s ionosphere, rising along magnetic field lines after sunset and persisting throughout the night. These structures cause severe scintillation in radio signals, degrading the performance of GPS and other satellite communication systems. The objective of LACE-C3A is to develop an FPGA-based edge computing platform and AI/ML processing algorithms at the CubeSat scale for a variety of detection and attribution problems. Given the global reliance on GPS for navigation, aviation, and communications, real-time detection of plasma bubbles is critical for mitigating their impacts. To achieve real-time detection, data from in-situ sensors such as Langmuir probes and impedance probes onboard CubeSats can be used to identify EPBs. Utah State University developed a suite of plasma sensors, Space Weather Probes (SWP), which flew and collected data on EPBs during the Scintillation Prediction and Observation Research Task (SPORT) mission. An XGBoost machine learning model was trained on SPORT mission electron density data from SWP to detect plasma bubbles using a desktop computer. This paper presents our research extending that work by optimizing and implementing XGBoost on a low-power flash-based FPGA for real-time inference using a custom decision tree accelerator and FFT-based feature vector creation. The FPGA processes sensor data onboard in real time, generating timestamped plasma bubble detections and attributions, which can be reported via an inter-satellite link. This FPGA-accelerated machine learning implementation will be demonstrated on the upcoming ITA-SAT2 mission. As part of the ITA-SAT2 mission, the LACE-C3A hardware and algorithms will be integrated into a constellation of three 16U CubeSats. This presentation will focus on the implementation of XGBoost on FPGA hardware, the adaptation of machine learning for space-based detection of plasma bubbles, and the expected benefits of real-time, autonomous detection and attribution from CubeSat constellations
Tacting the Functions of Behavior and College Mental Health: A Mobile App-Based Approach to Developing Psychological Flexibility
No full textThis study evaluated a brief Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) Matrix app to improve college student mental health in a randomized waitlist-controlled trial. It was hypothesized that participants assigned to the ACT Matrix app would report greater improvements than the waitlist condition on measures of psychological inflexibility (e.g., Acceptance and Action Questionnaire-II; Tacting of Function [TOF] scale), distress (e.g., Patient Health Questionnaire), and functioning (e.g., Satisfaction with Life Scale) as well as that changes in psychological inflexibility variables would predict improvements in distress and functioning at post-intervention and 4-week follow up. The sample included 106 students reporting elevated depression or anxiety symptoms. There were no significant differences between the ACT Matrix app and waitlist condition on any mental health outcomes over time. There were also no differences between conditions on most psychological flexibility measures, including the TOF process that the app focused on targeting. However, participants in the ACT condition did improve more than waitlist on two general measures of psychological inflexibility and mindfulness. Furthermore, changes in both TOF and psychological flexibility during the intervention correlated with improvements in mental health outcomes. Overall, results were mixed for the mechanisms of change of the ACT Matrix app, but suggested this low intensity app is not sufficient for improving mental health