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- Thank you received: 21
4th Interplanetary CubeSat Conference
3 years 7 months ago #928
by Doug
Minnaloushe creeps through the grass,
From moonlit place to place,
The sacred moon overhead,
Has taken a new phase.
(The Cat and the Moon - William Butler Yeats)
Doug replied the topic: 4th Interplanetary CubeSat Conference
Sounds fascinating Stefan. Do please let us know 
Minnaloushe creeps through the grass,
From moonlit place to place,
The sacred moon overhead,
Has taken a new phase.
(The Cat and the Moon - William Butler Yeats)
3 years 7 months ago #932
by Stefan
Stefan replied the topic: 4th Interplanetary CubeSat Conference
It’s a been a very interesting day here at Kensington. I haven’t been to a conference with such a diversity before. I’m glad I didn’t turn up in a Trek shirt today as I was surrounded by some very smartly dressed business folk! Anyway, here were a few high points:
1) Tyvak Systems in the USA are looking to investigate these ‘Lunar Swirls’ which are a result of magnetic anomalies. They want to travel within 5 km of their targets and deploy 32 3-Unit (3U) CubeSats (CS) as ‘disposable’ impactors. Apparently a major problem is getting enough relative velocity for the collision. The 3U CS contains a Solar Wind Ion Sensor, Magnetometer and Neutron Spectrometer. Since they are making 3 identical spacecraft the cost is more affordable. The bottom line here was that these low-cost spacecraft mean more dangerous or risky measurements can be taken. The cost being under half a million per 3U CS. That’s cheap I guess!
2) A talk I found particularly interesting by Joshua Colwell was on Microgravity experiments to mimic collision of small rocky material in protoplanetary disks. I liked this because it is linked to what I do (although I look at kilometer sized bodies instead of micron sized). The mission called Q-PACE will try to quantify energy damping during collision between particles at low speeds ( < 1 mm/s to 10 cm/s). They are interested at how the size distribution of material helps with material agglomeration. They also want to quantify the occurrence rate of statistically rare events whereby multiple particles can come together to form something much larger, faster. They want to put cells of different materials (glass, silicates and chondritic material) into a CubeSat (CS) which is then send into space for the microgravity climate. Very basic setup whereby cells are shaken and the only sensor is a camera. Data in the form of position and velocity of the particles from the video data is sent back to Earth for analysis. Big problem for them is sheer amount of data. Each run makes 18GB and downlink is only 10 kbps. They do some very complex data compression on the video. Main computer system is a Raspberry Pi B+. Bottom line here is to use CS to provide arena for particle agglomeration under microgravity.
3) Michael Johnson from PocketSpaceCraft.com talked about his TF-SLR Scounts which are tax-disc sized space-craft made of thin film. Incredibly light they can cost around £100-£150 which means almost anyone can own one. This is going to be a big business soon I think.
4) Frank Crary from Colorado, USA wants to understand more about Europa’s ocean, stimulated from geological evidence of broken ice. CubeSats could be used alongside Europa Clipper to measure electric currents driven in the ocean from the background field rotation of Europa with respect to Jupiters generated magnetic field. At 1% accuracy they could measure the ocean thickness, depth and salinity. There are no plans yet to do this, but would only need 3 1U CS or 2 1.5 CS deployed 2.75 days before Europa encounter with Europa Clipper, and then drift. Would measure fields over 1 hour. Transmits data back to Europa Clipper. There are issues as NASA is strongly opposed to contamination of planets and moons with microbes. Bottom line is it is theoretically possible and practical to use a few basic CS to gather accurate field measurements to characterise Europa’s ocean.
5) Elke Rabbow from DLR in Germany have a very interesting idea to test the survivability of microbes exposed to harsh conditions in space. They would monitor these extremophile bacteria in response to temperature, salinity and radiation. Only needs 2 1U CS and can be done in several locations, but the ISS is preferable as it allows for the CS to be returned to Earth for post flight sample analysis.
6) William Edmonson at NC A&T State University in the US talked about SSWARMS the Solar Storm Warning and Radiation Monitoring System. The idea is to deploy a number of these CubeSats in the L4 and L5 Lagrange points of Venus and use them to detect dangerous solar energetic particles (SEPs). These could be fatal to astronauts and knock out communications. In this position they could give 0.5-1.0 hours of pre-warning to missions on NEAs or Mars for example. The idea is to simply have an effective space weather monitoring system. It would be used alongside an integrated sensor network that includes SOHO etc.
7) Kieran Hayward at Cranfield University talked about using CubeSats to survey asteroids that could potentially be mined. I really enjoyed this talk as it presented some interesting numbers. They want to look at NEAs around 0.8 to 1.3 AU. Apparently need to survey on average 14 C type asteroids before a water rich one is found. They want data such as spin, size and landing sites, as well as chemical composition. They plan to use 2 6U CS where one is the asteroids surveyor and the other is the mothership. They contain two IR cameras, IR spectrometer and three seismic penetrators which will give unrivaled asteroid details (apparently) but don’t actually exist yet. Very interestingly they want to use a 300W Hall Effect thruster. These typically use Xenon for fuel, but space is limited on these tiny CS. So they will use solid Iodine instead due to high density. So a heater is needed to transform to gas. Complicated! Also, the thruster on its own would cost £400K. There bottom line was that it is entirely possible to go to these asteroids, but it is complicated and expensive.
More tomorrow
1) Tyvak Systems in the USA are looking to investigate these ‘Lunar Swirls’ which are a result of magnetic anomalies. They want to travel within 5 km of their targets and deploy 32 3-Unit (3U) CubeSats (CS) as ‘disposable’ impactors. Apparently a major problem is getting enough relative velocity for the collision. The 3U CS contains a Solar Wind Ion Sensor, Magnetometer and Neutron Spectrometer. Since they are making 3 identical spacecraft the cost is more affordable. The bottom line here was that these low-cost spacecraft mean more dangerous or risky measurements can be taken. The cost being under half a million per 3U CS. That’s cheap I guess!
2) A talk I found particularly interesting by Joshua Colwell was on Microgravity experiments to mimic collision of small rocky material in protoplanetary disks. I liked this because it is linked to what I do (although I look at kilometer sized bodies instead of micron sized). The mission called Q-PACE will try to quantify energy damping during collision between particles at low speeds ( < 1 mm/s to 10 cm/s). They are interested at how the size distribution of material helps with material agglomeration. They also want to quantify the occurrence rate of statistically rare events whereby multiple particles can come together to form something much larger, faster. They want to put cells of different materials (glass, silicates and chondritic material) into a CubeSat (CS) which is then send into space for the microgravity climate. Very basic setup whereby cells are shaken and the only sensor is a camera. Data in the form of position and velocity of the particles from the video data is sent back to Earth for analysis. Big problem for them is sheer amount of data. Each run makes 18GB and downlink is only 10 kbps. They do some very complex data compression on the video. Main computer system is a Raspberry Pi B+. Bottom line here is to use CS to provide arena for particle agglomeration under microgravity.
3) Michael Johnson from PocketSpaceCraft.com talked about his TF-SLR Scounts which are tax-disc sized space-craft made of thin film. Incredibly light they can cost around £100-£150 which means almost anyone can own one. This is going to be a big business soon I think.
4) Frank Crary from Colorado, USA wants to understand more about Europa’s ocean, stimulated from geological evidence of broken ice. CubeSats could be used alongside Europa Clipper to measure electric currents driven in the ocean from the background field rotation of Europa with respect to Jupiters generated magnetic field. At 1% accuracy they could measure the ocean thickness, depth and salinity. There are no plans yet to do this, but would only need 3 1U CS or 2 1.5 CS deployed 2.75 days before Europa encounter with Europa Clipper, and then drift. Would measure fields over 1 hour. Transmits data back to Europa Clipper. There are issues as NASA is strongly opposed to contamination of planets and moons with microbes. Bottom line is it is theoretically possible and practical to use a few basic CS to gather accurate field measurements to characterise Europa’s ocean.
5) Elke Rabbow from DLR in Germany have a very interesting idea to test the survivability of microbes exposed to harsh conditions in space. They would monitor these extremophile bacteria in response to temperature, salinity and radiation. Only needs 2 1U CS and can be done in several locations, but the ISS is preferable as it allows for the CS to be returned to Earth for post flight sample analysis.
6) William Edmonson at NC A&T State University in the US talked about SSWARMS the Solar Storm Warning and Radiation Monitoring System. The idea is to deploy a number of these CubeSats in the L4 and L5 Lagrange points of Venus and use them to detect dangerous solar energetic particles (SEPs). These could be fatal to astronauts and knock out communications. In this position they could give 0.5-1.0 hours of pre-warning to missions on NEAs or Mars for example. The idea is to simply have an effective space weather monitoring system. It would be used alongside an integrated sensor network that includes SOHO etc.
7) Kieran Hayward at Cranfield University talked about using CubeSats to survey asteroids that could potentially be mined. I really enjoyed this talk as it presented some interesting numbers. They want to look at NEAs around 0.8 to 1.3 AU. Apparently need to survey on average 14 C type asteroids before a water rich one is found. They want data such as spin, size and landing sites, as well as chemical composition. They plan to use 2 6U CS where one is the asteroids surveyor and the other is the mothership. They contain two IR cameras, IR spectrometer and three seismic penetrators which will give unrivaled asteroid details (apparently) but don’t actually exist yet. Very interestingly they want to use a 300W Hall Effect thruster. These typically use Xenon for fuel, but space is limited on these tiny CS. So they will use solid Iodine instead due to high density. So a heater is needed to transform to gas. Complicated! Also, the thruster on its own would cost £400K. There bottom line was that it is entirely possible to go to these asteroids, but it is complicated and expensive.
More tomorrow
3 years 7 months ago - 3 years 7 months ago #970
by Stefan
You're welcome. Yes, this is a good question. I can refer you to NASA's Office of Planetary Protection for further detailed reading ( planetaryprotection.nasa.gov/about ) but in simple I think it would potentially be impossible in some circumstances. After all, we already heard from talkers on this day that this extremophile bacteria could likely survive in many places in the solar system, even subject to fluctuating extreme temperatures and radiation. The strategy I presume is to minimize exposure until existing 'life' has been ruled out. Then we can contaminate them all we like
Do you mean the CubeSats themselves, or spacecraft with humans on board? I'll assume the latter. I'm really not sure. I can imagine it being useful as a warning for astronauts doing space-walks, outside of the protection of the spacecraft itself.
There were no talks on mining the moon. I don't even know quite what they intend to mine from the asteroids anyway. The talk we had on this day was identifying water. That must surely be a proof of concept!
Following (final) day update.
1) Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems expanding more on their role in sending CubeSats (CS) into space. They have specialised testing facilities and showed a video of a number of CS being launched:
They provided detailed of when the next opportunities were for CS launching. There is expected to be an Atlas V rocket in Q3 2016 which can handle 108U CS in total. The launch cost per 3U CS is $700,000. They introduced orbit options such as low earth orbit (LEO) and highly elliptical. The latter needs a thrust which can provide 40m/s at perigee to escape the earths orbit. This is obviously preferable for those satellite which intend to move to alternative locations, such as NEAs.
2) Ian Carnelli from ESA talked about AIM or the Asteroid Impact Mission. The idea is to deflect the secondary component of the binary asteroid Didymos.
3) Andres Dono from NASA Ames gave a really interesting talk, if not a little mathematically complex, on orbiting the Moon. It turns out orbiting the Moon in a stable configuration is not easy! The lunar gravity field (LGF) is very irregular due to the varying concentrations of Lunar mass over which it is travelling (also, other effects such as earth-sun interactions and radiation pressure) and hence orbit propagation is chaotic and very unstable. His team carried out computer simulations for two years to identify lunar frozen orbits (LFOs) which are safe values of the orbit parameter space which don’t cause the orbiter to drift much. The right ascension of the ascending node (RAAN) is critical to stability. Getting this right in some cases is very important, for example the DARE mission requires very a low altitude lunar orbit (lower altitude = more unstable) for two years. Also the aim is to be out of radio contact for at least 1,000 hours (radio quiet region) and hence there is no way to update the orbiter with new instructions if its orbit starts to decay. Eeek! Bottom line: Lunar orbiting, particularly at low altitudes, is not easy.
I’m afraid the talks became more… technical... after this. There were more talks from businesses and industrial partners that were trying to advertise the latest miniature transponders and compressors etc. Very interesting couple of days and something that would be worth getting involved in.
Anyway, I hope I've brought everyone up to speed on miniature satellite technology and mission awareness!
Stefan replied the topic: 4th Interplanetary CubeSat Conference
Fozia wrote: Thank you for the update Stefan, I found it extremely interesting:
Regarding #4: While I understand NASA's concern on contamination with external microbes, can this really be prevented 100% when we send probes or people out? On earth various places get infected with invasive species that kill off local plants and fauna thanks to intrepid travellers
You're welcome. Yes, this is a good question. I can refer you to NASA's Office of Planetary Protection for further detailed reading ( planetaryprotection.nasa.gov/about ) but in simple I think it would potentially be impossible in some circumstances. After all, we already heard from talkers on this day that this extremophile bacteria could likely survive in many places in the solar system, even subject to fluctuating extreme temperatures and radiation. The strategy I presume is to minimize exposure until existing 'life' has been ruled out. Then we can contaminate them all we like
Fozia wrote: #6: Interesting analogy of SEPs to be Space Weather equivalents - would a spacecraft have enough time to manoeuvre away from them?
Do you mean the CubeSats themselves, or spacecraft with humans on board? I'll assume the latter. I'm really not sure. I can imagine it being useful as a warning for astronauts doing space-walks, outside of the protection of the spacecraft itself.
Fozia wrote: #7) Lots of talk recently about asteroid mining... What about Moon mining?
There were no talks on mining the moon. I don't even know quite what they intend to mine from the asteroids anyway. The talk we had on this day was identifying water. That must surely be a proof of concept!
Following (final) day update.
1) Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems expanding more on their role in sending CubeSats (CS) into space. They have specialised testing facilities and showed a video of a number of CS being launched:
They provided detailed of when the next opportunities were for CS launching. There is expected to be an Atlas V rocket in Q3 2016 which can handle 108U CS in total. The launch cost per 3U CS is $700,000. They introduced orbit options such as low earth orbit (LEO) and highly elliptical. The latter needs a thrust which can provide 40m/s at perigee to escape the earths orbit. This is obviously preferable for those satellite which intend to move to alternative locations, such as NEAs.
2) Ian Carnelli from ESA talked about AIM or the Asteroid Impact Mission. The idea is to deflect the secondary component of the binary asteroid Didymos.
3) Andres Dono from NASA Ames gave a really interesting talk, if not a little mathematically complex, on orbiting the Moon. It turns out orbiting the Moon in a stable configuration is not easy! The lunar gravity field (LGF) is very irregular due to the varying concentrations of Lunar mass over which it is travelling (also, other effects such as earth-sun interactions and radiation pressure) and hence orbit propagation is chaotic and very unstable. His team carried out computer simulations for two years to identify lunar frozen orbits (LFOs) which are safe values of the orbit parameter space which don’t cause the orbiter to drift much. The right ascension of the ascending node (RAAN) is critical to stability. Getting this right in some cases is very important, for example the DARE mission requires very a low altitude lunar orbit (lower altitude = more unstable) for two years. Also the aim is to be out of radio contact for at least 1,000 hours (radio quiet region) and hence there is no way to update the orbiter with new instructions if its orbit starts to decay. Eeek! Bottom line: Lunar orbiting, particularly at low altitudes, is not easy.
I’m afraid the talks became more… technical... after this. There were more talks from businesses and industrial partners that were trying to advertise the latest miniature transponders and compressors etc. Very interesting couple of days and something that would be worth getting involved in.
Anyway, I hope I've brought everyone up to speed on miniature satellite technology and mission awareness!