Space Sustainability - Orbit Transfer Technology Study (conference paper)
To examine policy issues and norm requirements emerging alongside new advances in orbit transfer vehicle (OTV) technology, the Space Sustainability team in partnership with Astroscale Inc. has evaluated industry technologies using NASA’s technology readiness levels, analyzed the risks and benefits of OTVs towards government stakeholders, and developed case studies to explicate scenarios resulting from varying levels of regulation. Celvi Lisy (‘23), Amanda Chang (‘26), and Angela Huang (‘26) will be presenting their findings at the AIAA ASCEND 2023 conference at which the paper was accepted.
Space Sustainability - 5 Year Deorbit (journal paper)
For the Small Satellite Conference in 2023, OSSTP published a paper on the compliance of existing system architectures with the updated FCC five-year deorbit ruling. This year, OSSTP is expanding the database to further characterize which missions will be compliant with updating legislations.
Space Sustainability - Solar Cycle
While researching compliance with the new FCC five year deorbit ruling, it was found that launch year makes a significant effect on the time it takes a satellite to reenter the atmosphere. This effect is caused by changes in the solar cycle, which cycles every twenty-six years. In order to characterize the effect of the solar cycle, parameters such as area-to-mass ratio, apogee, perigee, etc. from Orbital Debris Assessment Reports (ODARs) filed with the FCC. These parameters will be used to calculate orbital lifetimes at the beginning versus the end of a solar cycle.
Textbooks SatSys
The Satellite Systems Textbook team is looking to publish our Satellite Systems textbook this semester! The team is working on editing and reorganizing the content, as well as updating figures, so that the textbook can be aimed towards a general audience whom wants a general background on orbital mechanics and wireless communication. Content organization will be lead by Neel Dhulipala (‘24), and general editing and redrawing of figures will be lead by Angela Huang (‘26).
Build-A-Sat Educational Kit
Since Fall 2022, the Build-A-Sat Educational Kit team has led fun, hands-on satellite lessons for 799 students all around the world. For this upcoming semester, the team is focused on polishing accompanying teacher resources, running more sessions, developing informational videos, and setting up teacher workshops to enable educators to successfully run their own lessons using printed kits.
Data Scrapers NGSO
After scraping the data from the Federal Communications Commision (FCC)’s International Communications Filing System (ICFS) and Experimental Licensing System (ELS), this team is working to analyze how the non-geostationary satellite industry has evolved over the last twenty years (2012-2022) and extract meaningful trends that can inform policy makers. By the end of the fall semester the NGSO team, led by Kaitlyn Fleming (‘24) with support from Abigail Omer (‘24) and Neel Dhulipala (‘24), is expected to submit this paper for publication.
UHF + RBC
In Fall 2023, the team is testing the Rx and Tx chains and components to ensure the ground station can support multiple missions.
SWARM-Ex UHF Ground Station
In Fall 2023, the Ground Station team is working on (a) testing the hardline and radio connections between the ground system and the lab computer (b) working with SYS/CDH team to define ground packets for the satellite (c.) collaborating with X-band provider to perform compatibility testing between systems (d) setting up cloud infrastructure for telemetry data between the satellite-ground station.
SWARM-Ex Structures
For Fall Semester of 2023, the SWARM-EX structures team is led by Lillian Shoemaker with support form Linda Hu and Celvi Lisy. The team's main focus for this semester is to finalize the SWARM-EX spacecraft design in preparation for the predicted launch in the 3rd quarter of 2024. In order to finalize the project, the team is putting major focus on:
Final structure drawing package
Fit checks
Assembly Instructions
Etc.
The team is also supporting the Integrated Testing team in the development of instructions for testing and assembly.