Benjamin Malphrus

Development of an Off-the-Shelf Bus for Small Satellites

KySat1 is a 1 kilogram picoclass satellite being developed by college students across the state of Kentucky. To the best of our knowledge, the KySat effort is the first by a state to develop a satellite. The consortium assembled to fund and develop KySat includes public, private and educational partners throughout Kentucky. While the primary mission of KySat1 is educational outreach, the goals of the KySat program include (1) Educational experience for secondary and post secondary students (2) Cultivate an aerospace and satellite technology base in Kentucky (3) Develop a reliable reusable satellite bus that will form the basis for future education and commercial KySat missions. The timeline for KySat1 is aggressive and off-the-shelf technology is leveraged whenever possible. This paper overviews the KySat1 design and development.

SOCEM: Sub-Orbital CubeSat Experimental Mission

SOCEM: Sub-Orbital CubeSat Experimental Mission will attempt, for the first time, to eject CubeSats in space from a sub-orbital sounding rocket.1 2 This technology demonstration flight will eject two CubeSats from a standard 17-inch diameter NASA sounding rocket. Two student-designed and student-built CubeSats will be ejected as part of the mission, a 2U CubeSat ADAMASat (Antenna Deployment and Mono-filament Actuator Satellite) developed by Kentucky Space to test CubeSat actuator designs and a 1U CubeSat developed by Cal Poly as a test-bed for PolySat bus technologies. The CubeSats will be ejected perpendicular to the direction of flight without requiring a de-spin maneuver providing the CubeSats with several minutes in space before re-entry and impact in the Atlantic Ocean. The SOCEM flight is scheduled for launch on 21 January 2010. Success in this effort could provide a robust ride-share technology for future NASA sounding rocket missions.

Neutral Hydrogen in Arp 158

We present 21 cm observations of Arp 158. We have performed a study of the neutral hydrogen (H I) to help us understand the overall formation and evolution of this system. This is a disturbed system with distinct optical knots connected by a linear structure embedded in luminous material. There is also a diffuse spray to the southeast. The H I seems to be made up of three distinct, kinematically separate systems. Arp 158 bears a certain optical resemblance to NGC 520 (Arp 157), which has been identified as a mid-stage merger. From our 21 cm observations of Arp 158, we also see a comparable H I content with NGC 520. These similarities suggest that Arp 158 is also an intermediate-stage merger.

Update on Dependable Multiprocessor (DM) CubeSat technology development: ISS (International Space Station) flight experiments

Following the successful SMDC (Space and Missile Defense Command) TechSat F-cubed (Form, Fit, Function) demonstration in 2012, DM CubeSat technology development continued its path to space. In March 2013, Yosemite Space, formerly known as Advanced Materials Applications, LLC, and Honeywell Aerospace were awarded a CASIS (the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space) grant to perform both ground-based and space-based radiation testing of Gumstix™ COM (Compute-On-Module) modules. Ground-based proton testing of a variety of Gumstix modules has been completed. The space-based radiation testing and performance validation will be conducted as an ISS (International Space Station) National Laboratory flight experiment. Originally scheduled for launch in late 2014, the launch of the Gumstix flight experiment has been delayed to early 2015. In September 2014, Honeywell and Morehead State University (MSU) were awarded a CASIS grant to fly a DM (Dependable Multiprocessor) CubeSat payload processor as a 2015 ISS National Laboratory flight experiment. This ISS flight experiment will culminate with the TRL7 validation of DM CubeSat technology. Following a brief overview of DM and DM CubeSat technology, the paper discusses the two ISS flight experiments and other DM CubeSat-related developments.

The KySat Space Express Sub-Orbital Mission Summary

KySat space express was a rapid turn around, suborbital access to space experiment launched in December 2007. The Space Express mission was designed to help test subsystems and processes being developed for future orbital KySat missions. A primary goal of the KySat consortium is to facilitate inexpensive and rapid access to space for small payloads. The space express mission was launched from the white sands missile range on a lunar rocket and rover shadow IB launch system. The space express payload consisted of telemetry package that gathered temperature, pressure, and mission time on board the rocket. The telemetry gathered onboard the rocket was transmitted to three redundant ground stations using the VHF amateur ham radio band. While the launch system suffered a failure during the boost phase, the payload functioned as designed. This paper overviews the design and development of the space express mission.

Overview of Primitive Object Volatile Explorer (PrOVE) CubeSat or Smallsat concept

Here we describe the Primitive Object Volatile Explorer (PrOVE), a smallsat mission concept to study the surface structure and volatile inventory of comets in their perihelion passage phase when volatile activity is near peak. CubeSat infrastructure imposes limits on propulsion systems, which are compounded by sensitivity to the spacecraft disposal state from the launch platform and potential launch delays. We propose circumventing launch platform complications by using waypoints in space to park a deep space SmallSat or CubeSat while awaiting the opportunity to enter a trajectory to flyby a suitable target. In our Planetary Science Deep Space SmallSat Studies (PSDS3) project, we investigated scientific goals, waypoint options, potential concept of operations (ConOps) for periodic and new comets, spacecraft bus infrastructure requirements, launch platforms, and mission operations and phases. Our payload would include two low-risk instruments: a visible image (VisCAM) for 5-10 m resolution surface maps; and a highly versatile multispectral Comet CAMera (ComCAM) will measure 1) H2O, CO2, CO, and organics non-thermal fluorescence signatures in the 2-5 μm MWIR, and 2) 7-10 and 8-14 μm thermal (LWIR) emission. This payload would return unique data not obtainable from ground-based telescopes and complement data from Earth-orbiting observatories. Thus, the PrOVE mission would (1) acquire visible surface maps, (2) investigate chemical heterogeneity of a comet nucleus by quantifying volatile species abundance and changes with solar insolation, (3) map the spatial distribution of volatiles and determine any variations, and (4) determine the frequency and distribution of outbursts.

CXBN: A Blueprint for an Improved Measurement of the Cosmological X-Ray Background

A precise measurement of the Cosmic X-ray Background (CXB) is crucial for constraining models of the evolution and composition of the universe. While several large, expensive satellites have measured the CXB as a secondary mission, there is still disagreement about normalization of its spectrum. The Cosmic X-ray Background NanoSat (CXBN) is a small, low-cost satellite whose primary goal is to measure the CXB over its two-year lifetime. Benefiting from a low instrument-induced background due to its small mass and size, CXBN will use a novel, pixelated Cadmium Zinc Telluride (CZT) detector with energy resolution < 1 keV over the range 1-60 keV to measure the CXBN with unprecedented accuracy. This paper describes CXBN and its science payload, including the GEANT4 model that has been used to predict overall performance and the backgrounds from secondary particles in Low Earth Orbit. It also addresses the strategy for scanning the sky and calibrating the data, and presents the expected results over the two-year mission lifetime.

Arp 158: A Study of the HI

We present here 21 cm observations of Arp 158. We have performed a study of the HI to help us understand the overall formation and evolution of this system and its role in galaxy evolution.