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Aerospace
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Verification Approaches for Nano- and Micro-Satellites II
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Verification Approaches for Nano- and Micro-Satellites II

A special issue of Aerospace (ISSN 2226-4310). This special issue belongs to the section "Astronautics & Space Science".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (31 January 2022) | Viewed by 26981

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Paolo Tortora

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Dipartimento di Ingegneria Industriale, Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna, Bologna, Italy
Interests: small satellites; innovative spacecraft subsystems including the ground segment; planetary exploration with particular reference to radio science experiments
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Dario Modenini

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Dipartimento di Ingegneria Industriale, Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna, Bologna, Italy
Interests: design and testing in the field of microsatellites and space microsystems; methods for attitude determination and control; recursive filters; micropropulsion systems; test-bench for attitude determination and control systems of small satellites
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Two years on from the original call for contributions, we can say with certainty that the Special Issue on “Verification Approaches for Nano- and Micro-Satellites” has been a success, with the vast majority of the intended research areas mentioned in the first call having been covered by the Authors, and valuable lessons learnt having been reported. Most notably, the manuscripts provided strong evidence on the importance of an early approach to system integration, possibly starting even before subsystems completion. Indeed, such an approach may help to identify system level design flaws at a point when they can be recovered with a minimal impact on the overall project schedule, which is of paramount importance for those programs leveraging rapid deployment times, as for typical nano- and micro-satellite missions.

After the Special Issue (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/aerospace/special_issues/nano_micro_satellites) was completed, as Editors of MDPI Aerospace, we continued to receive several submissions dealing with ground verification approaches for small satellite platforms, attesting to the ongoing relevance of this topic of interest. As such, we have decided that it would be beneficial to the field and to our readers to open another volume.

It is therefore our pleasure to introduce Volume II of the MDPI Aerospace Special Issue on “Verification Approaches for Nano- and Micro-Satellites”.

Prof. Paolo Tortora
Prof. Dr. Dario Modenini
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Aerospace is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

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Published Papers (7 papers)

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28 pages, 16151 KiB  
Article
Mission Test Campaign for the EIRSAT-1 Engineering Qualification Model
by Maeve Doyle, Rachel Dunwoody, Gabriel Finneran, David Murphy, Jack Reilly, Joseph Thompson, Sai Krishna Reddy Akarapu, Joseph Mangan, Sarah Walsh, Jessica Erkal, Fergal Marshall, Lána Salmon, Eoghan Somers, Lily Ha, David Palma, Antonio Martin-Carrillo, Sheila McBreen, David McKeown, William O’Connor, Brian Shortt, Alexey Uliyanov, Ronan Wall and Lorraine Hanlonadd Show full author list remove Hide full author list
Aerospace 2022, 9(2), 100; https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace9020100 - 13 Feb 2022
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3511
Abstract
The compact, standardised form factor of CubeSats allows for the use of commercial off-the-shelf components, reducing traditional barriers to entry, such as cost and development time. More than 1500 of these small spacecraft have been launched in the past 20 years, with improving [...] Read more.
The compact, standardised form factor of CubeSats allows for the use of commercial off-the-shelf components, reducing traditional barriers to entry, such as cost and development time. More than 1500 of these small spacecraft have been launched in the past 20 years, with improving capabilities that enable a wide range of mission profiles. The Educational Irish Research Satellite, EIRSAT-1, is a CubeSat being developed by a student-led team with goals that span education, technology demonstration and science. A comprehensive mission test plan, in which in-flight conditions are simulated, has been developed for EIRSAT-1 and implemented using an engineering qualification model of the spacecraft. In addition to verifying 41 mission requirements, the successful execution of the mission test plan established that the full satellite system can perform the intended mission. Mission testing also proved to be an invaluable tool to prepare for launch and operations, providing the team with a more complete understanding of the satellite’s expected on-orbit behaviour. This work presents a detailed description of the mission test planning process and implementation, as well as key results and lessons learned. In doing so, this work aims to improve the on-orbit reliability of CubeSats by disseminating resources and good practice around mission testing. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Verification Approaches for Nano- and Micro-Satellites II)
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30 pages, 4388 KiB  
Article
Thermal Vacuum Test Campaign of the EIRSAT-1 Engineering Qualification Model
by Rachel Dunwoody, Jack Reilly, David Murphy, Maeve Doyle, Joseph Thompson, Gabriel Finneran, Lána Salmon, Conor O’Toole, Sai Krishna Reddy Akarapu, Jessica Erkal, Joseph Mangan, Fergal Marshall, Eoghan Somers, Sarah Walsh, Daithí de Faoite, Mike Hibbett, David Palma, Loris Franchi, Lily Ha, Lorraine Hanlon, David McKeown, William O’Connor, Alexey Uliyanov, Ronan Wall, Brian Shortt and Sheila McBreenadd Show full author list remove Hide full author list
Aerospace 2022, 9(2), 99; https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace9020099 - 12 Feb 2022
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 5881
Abstract
CubeSats facilitate rapid development and deployment of missions for educational, technology demonstration, and scientific purposes. However, they are subject to a high failure rate, with a leading cause being the lack of system-level verification. The Educational Irish Research Satellite (EIRSAT-1) is a CubeSat [...] Read more.
CubeSats facilitate rapid development and deployment of missions for educational, technology demonstration, and scientific purposes. However, they are subject to a high failure rate, with a leading cause being the lack of system-level verification. The Educational Irish Research Satellite (EIRSAT-1) is a CubeSat mission under development in the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Fly Your Satellite! Programme. EIRSAT-1 is a 2U CubeSat with three novel payloads and a bespoke antenna deployment module, which all contribute to the complexity of the project. To increase the likelihood of mission success, a prototype model philosophy is being employed, where both an engineering qualification model (EQM) and a flight model of EIRSAT-1 are being built. Following the assembly of the EQM, the spacecraft underwent a successful full functional test and month-long mission test. An environmental test campaign in ESA Education Office’s CubeSat Support Facility was then conducted with the EQM where both vibration and thermal verification test campaigns were performed. The focus of this paper is the thermal testing and verification of the EIRSAT-1 EQM. Over three weeks, the EQM was subjected to one non-operational cycle, three and a half operational cycles, and a thermal balance test in a thermal vacuum chamber. After dwelling at each temperature extreme, functional tests were performed to investigate the performance of the spacecraft in this space representative environment. The approach to planning and executing the thermal testing is described in detail including the documentation required, set up of the test equipment, and determination of the test levels. Overall, the campaign demonstrated that the mission can successfully operate in a space environment similar to that expected in orbit, despite encountering a number of issues. These issues included a payload displaying anomalous behaviour at cold temperatures and needing to redefine test levels due to an insufficient understanding of the internal dissipation in the spacecraft. A total of two major and three minor non-conformances were raised. Crucially, these issues could not have been found without thermal testing, despite the comprehensive ambient tests performed. The main results and lessons learned during this thermal test campaign are presented with the aim of guiding future missions on optimal approaches in organising and executing the thermal testing of their CubeSats. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Verification Approaches for Nano- and Micro-Satellites II)
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30 pages, 24193 KiB  
Article
Modal Analysis of Conceptual Microsatellite Design Employing Perforated Structural Components for Mass Reduction
by Sarmad Dawood Salman Dawood, Ahmad Salahuddin Mohd Harithuddin and Mohammad Yazdi Harmin
Aerospace 2022, 9(1), 23; https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace9010023 - 04 Jan 2022
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3037
Abstract
Mass reduction is a primary design goal pursued in satellite structural design, since the launch cost is proportional to their total mass. The most common mass reduction method currently employed is to introduce honeycomb structures, with space qualified composite materials as facing materials, [...] Read more.
Mass reduction is a primary design goal pursued in satellite structural design, since the launch cost is proportional to their total mass. The most common mass reduction method currently employed is to introduce honeycomb structures, with space qualified composite materials as facing materials, into the structural design, especially for satellites with larger masses. However, efficient implementation of these materials requires significant expertise in their design, analysis, and fabrication processes; moreover, the material procurement costs are high, therefore increasing the overall program costs. Thus, the current work proposes a low-cost alternative approach through the design and implementation of geometrically-shaped, parametrically-defined metal perforation patterns, fabricated by standard processes. These patterns included four geometric shapes (diamonds, hexagons, squares, and triangles) implemented onto several components of a structural design for a conceptual satellite, with a parametric design space defined by two scale factors and also two aspect ratio variations. The change in the structure’s fundamental natural frequency, as a result of implementing each pattern shape and parameter variation, was the selection criterion, due to its importance during the launcher selection process. The best pattern from among the four alternatives was then selected, after having validated the computational methodology through implementing experimental modal analysis on a scaled down physical model of a primary load-bearing component of the structural design. From the findings, a significant mass reduction percentage of 23.15%, utilizing the proposed perforation concept, was achieved in the final parametric design iteration relative to the baseline unperforated case while maintaining the same fundamental frequency. Dynamic loading analysis was also conducted, utilizing both the baseline unperforated and the finalized perforated designs, to check its capability to withstand realistic launch loads through applying quasi-static loads. The findings show that the final perforated design outperformed the baseline unperforated design with respect to the maximum displacements, maximum Von Mises stresses, and also the computed margin of safety. With these encouraging outcomes, the perforated design concept proved that it could provide an opportunity to develop low-cost satellite structural designs with reduced mass. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Verification Approaches for Nano- and Micro-Satellites II)
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16 pages, 4849 KiB  
Article
A Concurrent Testing Facility Approach to Validate Small Satellite Combined Operations
by Cristóbal Nieto-Peroy, Marco Sabatini, Giovanni Palmerini and Élcio Jeronimo de Oliveira
Aerospace 2021, 8(12), 361; https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace8120361 - 24 Nov 2021
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1773
Abstract
Federated remote laboratories allow for the execution of experiments ex situ. The coordination of several laboratories can be used to perform concurrent experiments of combined space operations. However, the latency of the communications between facilities is critical to performing adequate real-time experiments. This [...] Read more.
Federated remote laboratories allow for the execution of experiments ex situ. The coordination of several laboratories can be used to perform concurrent experiments of combined space operations. However, the latency of the communications between facilities is critical to performing adequate real-time experiments. This paper presents an approach for conducting coordinated experiments between floating platforms at two remote laboratories. Two independently designed platforms, one at Luleå University of Technology and the other at La Sapienza University of Rome, were established for this purpose. A synchronization method based on the Simple Network Time Protocol was created, allowing the offset and delay between the agents to be measured.Both platforms exchange data about their measured time and pose through a UDP/IP protocol over the internet. This approach was validated with the execution of simulated operations. A first demonstrative experiment was also performed showing the possibility to realize leader/follower coordinated operations. The results of the simulations and experiments showed communication delays on the order of tens of milliseconds with no significant impact on the control performance. Consequently, the suggested protocol was proven to be adequate for conducting coordinated experiments in real time between remote laboratories. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Verification Approaches for Nano- and Micro-Satellites II)
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16 pages, 5459 KiB  
Article
A Test Platform to Assess the Impact of Miniaturized Propulsion Systems
by Fabrizio Stesina, Sabrina Corpino and Daniele Calvi
Aerospace 2020, 7(11), 163; https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace7110163 - 16 Nov 2020
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2462
Abstract
Miniaturized propulsion systems can enable many future CubeSats missions. The advancement of the Technology Readiness Level of this technology passes through the integration in a CubeSat platform and the assessment of the impact and the interactions of the propulsion systems on the actual [...] Read more.
Miniaturized propulsion systems can enable many future CubeSats missions. The advancement of the Technology Readiness Level of this technology passes through the integration in a CubeSat platform and the assessment of the impact and the interactions of the propulsion systems on the actual CubeSat technology and vice versa. The request of power, the thermal environmental, and the electromagnetic emissions generated inside the platform require careful analyses. This paper presents the upgraded design and the validation of a CubeSat test platform (CTP) that can interface a wide range of new miniaturized propulsion systems and gather unprecedented information for these analyses, which can be fused with the commonly used ground support equipment. The CTP features are reported, and the main achievements of the tests are shown, demonstrating the effective capabilities of the platform and how it allows for the investigation of the mutual interactions at system level between propulsion systems and the CubeSat technology. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Verification Approaches for Nano- and Micro-Satellites II)
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29 pages, 5695 KiB  
Article
Reusable and Reliable Flight-Control Software for a Fail-Safe and Cost-Efficient Cubesat Mission: Design and Implementation
by Ibtissam Latachi, Tajjeeddine Rachidi, Mohammed Karim and Ahmed Hanafi
Aerospace 2020, 7(10), 146; https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace7100146 - 10 Oct 2020
Cited by 9 | Viewed by 5281
Abstract
While there is no rigorous framework to develop nanosatellites flight software, this manuscript aimed to explore and establish processes to design a reliable and reusable flight software architecture for cost-efficient student Cubesat missions such as Masat-1. Masat-1 is a 1Unit CubeSat, developed using [...] Read more.
While there is no rigorous framework to develop nanosatellites flight software, this manuscript aimed to explore and establish processes to design a reliable and reusable flight software architecture for cost-efficient student Cubesat missions such as Masat-1. Masat-1 is a 1Unit CubeSat, developed using a systems engineering approach, off-the-shelf components and open-source software tools. It was our aim to use it as a test-bed platform and as an initial reference for Cubesat flight software development in Morocco. The command and data handling system chosen for Masat-1 is a system-on-module-embedded computer running freeRTOS. A real-time operating system was used in order to simplify the real-time onboard management. To ensure software design reliability, modularity, reusability and extensibility, our solution follows a layered service oriented architectural pattern, and it is based on a finite state machine in the application layer to execute the mission functionalities in a deterministic manner. Moreover, a client-server model was elected to ensure the inter-process communication and resources access while using uniform APIs to enhance cross-platform data exchange. A hierarchical fault tolerance architecture was also implemented after a systematic assessment of the Masat-1 mission risks using reliability block diagrams (RBDs) and functional failure mode, effect and criticality analysis (FMECA). Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Verification Approaches for Nano- and Micro-Satellites II)
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9 pages, 3080 KiB  
Technical Note
Automatic Balancing for Satellite Simulators with Mixed Mechanical and Magnetic Actuation
by Andrea Curatolo, Anton Bahu and Dario Modenini
Aerospace 2022, 9(4), 223; https://doi.org/10.3390/aerospace9040223 - 16 Apr 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2124
Abstract
Dynamic spacecraft simulators are becoming a widespread tool to enable effective on-ground verification of the attitude determination and control subsystem (ADCS). In such facilities, the on-orbit rotational dynamics shall be simulated, thereby requiring minimization of the external torques acting on the satellite mock-up. [...] Read more.
Dynamic spacecraft simulators are becoming a widespread tool to enable effective on-ground verification of the attitude determination and control subsystem (ADCS). In such facilities, the on-orbit rotational dynamics shall be simulated, thereby requiring minimization of the external torques acting on the satellite mock-up. Gravity torque is often the largest among the disturbances, and an automatic procedure for balancing is usually foreseen in such facilities as it is significantly faster and more accurate than manual methods. In this note, we present an automatic balancing technique which combines mechanical and magnetic actuation by the joint use of sliding masses and magnetorquers. A feedback control is employed for in-plane balancing in which the proportional and integral actions are provided by moving the masses, while the derivative action is provided by the magnetorquers. Compared to an earlier implementation by the authors relying on shifting masses only, the novel approach is shown to reduce the in-plane unbalance by an additional 45% on average. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Verification Approaches for Nano- and Micro-Satellites II)
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