Author Topic: CubeSat and NanoSat Technology  (Read 175276 times)

Offline TrevorMonty

Re: CubeSat and NanoSat Technology
« Reply #160 on: 11/25/2015 04:43 pm »
The CATS plasma thruster is getting funding from DARPA for flight demo. I've be hoping this propulsion system would fly, along with a lot of interplanetary scientists I'm guessing.

Surprisingly DARPA's interest is long endurance LEO flights, not BLEO.

http://www.parabolicarc.com/2015/11/25/phase/

Here is an older video on it.
Video from ISSC 2014.
First half of this video starting about 0:10 is on the CAT thruster. This is a plasma thruster for cubesats. With LEO to earth escape in 6months and DV of  up to 7km/s this propulsion system enables planetary missions using LEO launched cubesats.

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/46819252


Offline A_M_Swallow

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Re: CubeSat and NanoSat Technology
« Reply #161 on: 11/25/2015 10:10 pm »
The CATS plasma thruster is getting funding from DARPA for flight demo. I've be hoping this propulsion system would fly, along with a lot of interplanetary scientists I'm guessing.

Surprisingly DARPA's interest is long endurance LEO flights, not BLEO.

http://www.parabolicarc.com/2015/11/25/phase/

Here is an older video on it.
Video from ISSC 2014.
First half of this video starting about 0:10 is on the CAT thruster. This is a plasma thruster for cubesats. With LEO to earth escape in 6months and DV of  up to 7km/s this propulsion system enables planetary missions using LEO launched cubesats.

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/46819252

I assume that this case study either describes the DARPA's mission or was used to sell the CAT to DARPA.

"Station keeping and operational life extension for a CubeSat Earth observation mission."

Cubesat Lifetime without propulsion is 308 days.  The CAT can provide a claimed extra 3.7 years in a 400 km orbit. Use Xenon as propellant for high thrust or water for high Isp.

http://www.phasefour.io/assets/p4_case_study_1_leo_72115.pdf

Offline TrevorMonty

Re: CubeSat and NanoSat Technology
« Reply #162 on: 11/26/2015 03:30 pm »
The CATS plasma thruster is getting funding from DARPA for flight demo. I've be hoping this propulsion system would fly, along with a lot of interplanetary scientists I'm guessing.

Surprisingly DARPA's interest is long endurance LEO flights, not BLEO.

http://www.parabolicarc.com/2015/11/25/phase/

Here is an older video on it.
Video from ISSC 2014.
First half of this video starting about 0:10 is on the CAT thruster. This is a plasma thruster for cubesats. With LEO to earth escape in 6months and DV of  up to 7km/s this propulsion system enables planetary missions using LEO launched cubesats.

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/46819252

I assume that this case study either describes the DARPA's mission or was used to sell the CAT to DARPA.

"Station keeping and operational life extension for a CubeSat Earth observation mission."

Cubesat Lifetime without propulsion is 308 days.  The CAT can provide a claimed extra 3.7 years in a 400 km orbit. Use Xenon as propellant for high thrust or water for high Isp.

http://www.phasefour.io/assets/p4_case_study_1_leo_72115.pdf
It may be able to operate as low as 100-200km for extended periods.

Offline dkovacic

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Re: CubeSat and NanoSat Technology
« Reply #163 on: 11/26/2015 05:02 pm »
The CATS plasma thruster is getting funding from DARPA for flight demo. I've be hoping this propulsion system would fly, along with a lot of interplanetary scientists I'm guessing.

Surprisingly DARPA's interest is long endurance LEO flights, not BLEO.

http://www.parabolicarc.com/2015/11/25/phase/

Here is an older video on it.
Video from ISSC 2014.
First half of this video starting about 0:10 is on the CAT thruster. This is a plasma thruster for cubesats. With LEO to earth escape in 6months and DV of  up to 7km/s this propulsion system enables planetary missions using LEO launched cubesats.

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/46819252

I assume that this case study either describes the DARPA's mission or was used to sell the CAT to DARPA.

"Station keeping and operational life extension for a CubeSat Earth observation mission."

Cubesat Lifetime without propulsion is 308 days.  The CAT can provide a claimed extra 3.7 years in a 400 km orbit. Use Xenon as propellant for high thrust or water for high Isp.

http://www.phasefour.io/assets/p4_case_study_1_leo_72115.pdf
Did you mean using Xenon for high Isp an water for high thrust?

UPDATE: I checked the source document, which really states that than Xe ISP is just 500s, three times lower than for water. This is strange.
« Last Edit: 11/26/2015 05:12 pm by dkovacic »

Offline gosnold

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Re: CubeSat and NanoSat Technology
« Reply #164 on: 11/28/2015 10:01 am »
The CATS plasma thruster is getting funding from DARPA for flight demo. I've be hoping this propulsion system would fly, along with a lot of interplanetary scientists I'm guessing.

Surprisingly DARPA's interest is long endurance LEO flights, not BLEO.

http://www.parabolicarc.com/2015/11/25/phase/

Here is an older video on it.
Video from ISSC 2014.
First half of this video starting about 0:10 is on the CAT thruster. This is a plasma thruster for cubesats. With LEO to earth escape in 6months and DV of  up to 7km/s this propulsion system enables planetary missions using LEO launched cubesats.

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/46819252

I assume that this case study either describes the DARPA's mission or was used to sell the CAT to DARPA.

"Station keeping and operational life extension for a CubeSat Earth observation mission."

Cubesat Lifetime without propulsion is 308 days.  The CAT can provide a claimed extra 3.7 years in a 400 km orbit. Use Xenon as propellant for high thrust or water for high Isp.

http://www.phasefour.io/assets/p4_case_study_1_leo_72115.pdf
Did you mean using Xenon for high Isp an water for high thrust?

UPDATE: I checked the source document, which really states that than Xe ISP is just 500s, three times lower than for water. This is strange.
And figure 1 is weird. It says the lifetime of the satellite is higher at 0km altitude than at 400km.

Offline Danderman

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Re: CubeSat and NanoSat Technology
« Reply #165 on: 01/06/2016 06:00 pm »
Has anyone ever flown a CubeSAT with propulsion?

edit: I mean a propulsion system that actually worked.



Bump for 2016

Offline TrevorMonty

Re: CubeSat and NanoSat Technology
« Reply #166 on: 01/07/2016 04:34 pm »
Spacepharma developing cubesats to run biological and chemical experiments.

http://www.geektime.com/2015/10/25/want-to-test-stuff-out-in-space-with-swiss-israeli-spacepharma-you-can/

Offline Danderman

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Re: CubeSat and NanoSat Technology
« Reply #167 on: 01/07/2016 10:21 pm »
It seems to me that there is an excess of supply in the market, compared with the number of missions intended to fly applications. It appears that applications developers still want to create their own platforms. Since we all live in a world where widespread adoption of standardized smartphone platforms like the IPhone and Android have encouraged developers to create applications, in our field the people who should be focused on applications spend their time making solar panels.


Offline A_M_Swallow

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Re: CubeSat and NanoSat Technology
« Reply #168 on: 01/08/2016 04:29 am »
It seems to me that there is an excess of supply in the market, compared with the number of missions intended to fly applications. It appears that applications developers still want to create their own platforms. Since we all live in a world where widespread adoption of standardized smartphone platforms like the IPhone and Android have encouraged developers to create applications, in our field the people who should be focused on applications spend their time making solar panels.



There is a standard for cubesats but currently not one for their 'payload bay'. A manufacture could write a user interface specification for the payload bay on their off the shelf cubesats.

They would have to specify maximum height, normal length and normal width, power available, connecting wires, cooling available, external holes for sensors, data connectors, data & message formats, data that the guidance system can supply such as time & location, commands available, data bandwidth to & from Earth and things like centre of gravity.

Offline Danderman

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Re: CubeSat and NanoSat Technology
« Reply #169 on: 01/13/2016 04:33 am »
I found the answer to my question: the Brazilian Serpens Cubesats was deployed from ISS with a Clydespace Pulsed Plasma Thruster.

No idea if the thruster actually worked.
« Last Edit: 01/13/2016 04:45 pm by Danderman »

Offline TrevorMonty

Re: CubeSat and NanoSat Technology
« Reply #170 on: 01/26/2016 02:11 pm »
The world’s first demonstration of autonomous spacecraft maneuvering was recently completed by Silicon Valley-based Deep Space Industries (DSI) and the Space Flight Laboratory (SFL) of Toronto, Canada. Using their highly-successful CanX-4 and CanX-5 pair of nanosatellites,


http://www.parabolicarc.com/2016/01/25/dsi-utias-demonstrate-autonomous-spacecraft-maneuvering/#more-57349


Offline TrevorMonty

Re: CubeSat and NanoSat Technology
« Reply #172 on: 03/31/2016 12:08 am »

Offline TrevorMonty

Re: CubeSat and NanoSat Technology
« Reply #173 on: 04/07/2016 04:59 pm »
Suncube, new miniature cubesat format. 3cm x 3cm.

https://asunow.asu.edu/20160406-creativity-asu-suncube-femtosat-space-exploration-for-everyone

Sent from my ALCATEL ONE TOUCH 6030X using Tapatalk


Offline TrevorMonty

Re: CubeSat and NanoSat Technology
« Reply #174 on: 04/22/2016 06:35 pm »

Offline TrevorMonty

Re: CubeSat and NanoSat Technology
« Reply #175 on: 05/05/2016 05:01 am »
Copied from another thread.


NASA’s $5.5M Cube Quest Challenge: Advancing Small Satellite Technology

NASA's Marshall Center

Published on May 4, 2016
The Cube Quest competition offers a total of $5.5 million to teams that meet the challenge objectives of designing, building and delivering flight-qualified, small satellites capable of advanced operations near and beyond the moon.

To learn more, visit http://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/centennial_challenges/cubequest/index.html

YouTube Location: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=A0GJ-1ZWyXE


« Last Edit: 05/05/2016 05:02 am by TrevorMonty »

Offline TrevorMonty

Re: CubeSat and NanoSat Technology
« Reply #176 on: 05/05/2016 09:33 pm »
3U demonstrator from DSI. Water fueled thruster is 200isp, with 300g tank.

https://deepspaceindustries.com/prospector-x/

Offline TrevorMonty

Re: CubeSat and NanoSat Technology
« Reply #177 on: 05/06/2016 06:39 pm »
Swarm satellites.

http://www.airspacemag.com/daily-planet/coming-soon-swarms-space-robots-180959020/

Weighing in at just 4 grams, the Sprites are basically flying, solar-powered circuit boards about the size of a Triscuit cracker, carrying a radio transceiver and small sensors.

Future missions could pack swarms of tiny spacecraft like FemtoSats and Sprites inside CubeSats, which in turn would ride to another planet along with a larger spacecraft.





Offline savuporo

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Orion - the first and only manned not-too-deep-space craft

Offline savuporo

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Re: CubeSat and NanoSat Technology
« Reply #179 on: 05/07/2016 10:46 pm »
Here is a list:


CanX-2 2008, CanX-4/5 2014, Canada University of Toronto. Cold-gas
Almasat-1 2012, University of Bologna, Italy. Cold-gas.
STRaND-1 2013 , Surrey Space, UK. Water-alcohol resistojet and pulsed plasma thrusters
CUSat 1/2 2013, Cornell University, US. Pulsed plasma thrusters
DELFI-N3XT 2013, Delft University, Netherlands. Cold-gas
Wren 2013, StaDoKo, Germany. pulsed plasma thrusters, failed
ALICE  2013, Air Force Institute, US. CNT arrays, appears classified now
POPSAT-HIP1, 2014. Microspace, Singapore. Cold-gas
BRICSat-P 2015, United States Naval Academy/ GWU, US. micro-arc thruster, µCAT
Orion - the first and only manned not-too-deep-space craft

 

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