102313 Exoplanetsat and other things to do with Cubesats and Chipsats

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Exoplanetsat and other things to do with Cubesats and

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Cubesatssatellites arethe size ofone two orthree blocks(called Ursquos)each blockbeing a 10cmx 10cm x

10cmcube [10centimeters is 4 inches] A satellite composed of three of these Ursquos in arow (a 3U CubeSat) is allowed to have a mass of at most 4 kg At thisscale the satellites are just big enough to incorporate a relevantpay load

Exoplanetsats - Detecting transiting exoplanets using a low-cost CubeSat

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102313 Exoplanetsat and other things to do with Cubesats and Chipsats

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platform (15 pages)

Draper Laboratory and MIT have developed the Exoplanetsat satellitethe size of a loaf of bread that will undertake one of the biggest tasks inastronomy finding Earthlike planets bey ond our solar sy stemmdashorexoplanetsmdashthat could support life It is scheduled to launch in 2012Each nanosatellite will cost as little as $600000 once in productionmdashExoPlanetSat cost approximately $5 millionmdashand their estimated orbitallifetime is one to two y ears

Nanosatellites ie spacecraft that weigh between 1 and 10 kg aredrawing increasing interest as platforms for conducting on-orbitscience This trend is primarily driven by the ability to piggybacknanosatellites on the launch of large spacecraft and hence achieveorbit at greatly reduced cost The CubeSat platform is astandardized nanosatellite configuration consisting of one twoor three 10 cm x 10 cm x 10 cm units (1 2or 3 ldquoUrdquos) arranged in arow We present a CubeSat-based concept for the discovery oftransiting exoplanets around the nearest and brightest Sun-likestars The spacecraft prototypemdashtermed ExoplanetSatmdashis a 3Uspace telescope capable of monitoring a single target star fromlow Earth orbit Given the volume limitations of the CubeSat formfactor designing a capable spacecraft requires overcomingsignificant challenges This work presents the initial satelliteconfiguration along with several subsystem-specific solutions tothe aforementioned constraints An optical design based on amodified commercial off-the-shelf camera lens is given We alsodescribe a novel two-stage attitude control architecture thatcombines 3-axis reaction wheels for coarse pointing with apiezoelectric translation stage at the focal plane for fine pointingModeling and simulation results are used to demonstratefeasibility by quantifying ExoplanetSat pointing precision signal-to-noise ratio guide star magnitude and additional designparameters which determine system performance

Baseline exoplanetsat Not shown are the solar arrays batteries thelight seal between the lens mount and focal plane array and the CCDcooling strap

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102313 Exoplanetsat and other things to do with Cubesats and Chipsats

nextbigfuturecom201109exoplanetsat-and-other-things-to-dohtml 216

platform (15 pages)

Draper Laboratory and MIT have developed the Exoplanetsat satellitethe size of a loaf of bread that will undertake one of the biggest tasks inastronomy finding Earthlike planets bey ond our solar sy stemmdashorexoplanetsmdashthat could support life It is scheduled to launch in 2012Each nanosatellite will cost as little as $600000 once in productionmdashExoPlanetSat cost approximately $5 millionmdashand their estimated orbitallifetime is one to two y ears

Nanosatellites ie spacecraft that weigh between 1 and 10 kg aredrawing increasing interest as platforms for conducting on-orbitscience This trend is primarily driven by the ability to piggybacknanosatellites on the launch of large spacecraft and hence achieveorbit at greatly reduced cost The CubeSat platform is astandardized nanosatellite configuration consisting of one twoor three 10 cm x 10 cm x 10 cm units (1 2or 3 ldquoUrdquos) arranged in arow We present a CubeSat-based concept for the discovery oftransiting exoplanets around the nearest and brightest Sun-likestars The spacecraft prototypemdashtermed ExoplanetSatmdashis a 3Uspace telescope capable of monitoring a single target star fromlow Earth orbit Given the volume limitations of the CubeSat formfactor designing a capable spacecraft requires overcomingsignificant challenges This work presents the initial satelliteconfiguration along with several subsystem-specific solutions tothe aforementioned constraints An optical design based on amodified commercial off-the-shelf camera lens is given We alsodescribe a novel two-stage attitude control architecture thatcombines 3-axis reaction wheels for coarse pointing with apiezoelectric translation stage at the focal plane for fine pointingModeling and simulation results are used to demonstratefeasibility by quantifying ExoplanetSat pointing precision signal-to-noise ratio guide star magnitude and additional designparameters which determine system performance

Baseline exoplanetsat Not shown are the solar arrays batteries thelight seal between the lens mount and focal plane array and the CCDcooling strap

Get Updates by RSS

Get Free Updates by Email

Subscribe me

Rea d la test h ea dlin es in y ou r

fa v or ite n ew s r ea der

D I S Q U S

C O M M E N T S

People

Recent

Popular

Most Discussed

UK approves next

generation nuclear

reactors to be built by

France and China

106 comments middot 2 hours

ago

Transition to Renmembi as

the worldrsquos reserve

currency on track for

sometime in the 2020s

66 comments middot 1 hour ago

Seafloor mining robots and

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completion to mine for

gold silver and copper

6 comments middot 2 hours ago

102313 Exoplanetsat and other things to do with Cubesats and Chipsats

nextbigfuturecom201109exoplanetsat-and-other-things-to-dohtml 316

TELESCOPES FOR SALE

ASTRONOMY

SPACE STOCK

FUTURE TECHNOLOGIES

SATELLITE TELESCOPE

SCIENCE CURRENT EVENTS

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CubeSats have been confined to low Earth orbit because nopropulsion system available at this scale can give the satellite theenergy needed to go beyond This may soon change and with thatchange will come new missions and applications for CubeSatsWhat follows is a list of what I consider to be the 5 mostinteresting CubeSat-based missions While the list is by no meansexhaustive it gives a good idea of the possibilities open to privateresearchers with relatively little cost

1 Earth Observation2 Multi-body reconfiguration experiments3 Astronomy4 Orbit the Moon5 Deliver ChipSats to cool places

This workpresents aninitial conceptand baselinedesign forExoplanetSatmdasha3U CubeSatspace telescopedesigned tomonitor thebrightest Sun-like stars fortransiting Earthanalogs Byadopting the

CubeSat form factor we aim to take advantage of low-costpiggyback launch opportunities and leverage existing COTStechnologies We present key subsystems including a two-stagescheme for arcsecond-level pointing The optical subsystem uses arefractive SLR camera lens and composite focal plane for bothscience measurements and guide star tracking An initial analysisof detector and jitter noise shows that the 10 ppm noise thresholdmdashthe minimum required for detecting Earth-like exoplanetsmdashisachievable given sufficiently low dark current noise high photonflux and highly precise pointing at the 01 to 1 arcsecond levelWhile we have shown that the pointing requirement is withinreach these goals are extremely difficult to reach within theconstraints of a CubeSat and will be developed further in futurepublications The transit method is directly scalable to otherplanet-star area ratios for a given system noise level Therefore ifmass and volume constraints prove the 10 ppm requirement to beinfeasible the science requirement may be adjusted to focus onlarger exoplanets

Future work

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102313 Exoplanetsat and other things to do with Cubesats and Chipsats

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A key element of any future work is expansion and maturation ofthe imaging simulation The ultimate goal is to create an end-to-end numerical model that can be used to simulate transit events inthe presence of all anticipated noise sources Central to thismodeling effort will be benchmarking the simulation againstexperimental measurements We anticipate doing this using ajitter noise testbed currently under construction at MIT It willprovide a way to inject a known amount of jitter-induced focalplane motion and measure the resulting signal error

An item that will receive particular attention is the issue of straylight from the Earth and Moon entering the telescope duringscience operations Volume constraints prevent the use of a largebaffle therefore a detailed analysis must be undertaken tocharacterize the detrimental impact stray light will have on theability to meet science requirements This and other efforts willcontinue over the coming months to mature the ExoplanetSatdesign and develop a functional prototype

Possible deployable solar array configurations (a) ldquocrossrdquoconfiguration (solar cells on the deployed panels are facing away) and(b) ldquotablerdquo configuration In both cases body-mounted panels are usedfor tumbling scenarios

1 Earth Observation

The standard mission for a CubeSat in Low Earth Orbit is to communicatewith ground stations and in some cases send back a few photos Assmaller and more powerful cameras become available the resolutionand detail of images taken from CubeSats will only improve Other ty pesof sensors can be incorporated such as magnetometers

2 Multi-body reconfiguration experiments

One active area of research that can benefit from cheap and fast cubesatprojects is the development of autonomous docking and maneuveringalgorithms for large groups of satellites Having a set of three or more 1UCubeSats that can move around each other would be a great platform forvalidation of these experiments

3 Astronomy

ExoplanetSat already discussed above Use a cloud of CubeSats eachwith a telescope tracking bright stars in order to detect Earth-likeplanets orbiting other stars

4 Orbit the Moon

G O O G L E +

B A D G E

N E X T B I G F U

T U R E

F A C E B O O K

F A N P A G E

102313 Exoplanetsat and other things to do with Cubesats and Chipsats

nextbigfuturecom201109exoplanetsat-and-other-things-to-dohtml 516

By hitchhiking part of the way on the same rocket as a larger satelliteCubeSats are able to gain much of the energy necessary to escape Earthorbit A much smaller propulsion sy stem may be even one that fitsinside the small volume of a CubeSat can then take the satellite the restof the way to the moon There are way s to trade time for propellantsav ings This way a CubeSat can get to the Moon in a few months butmuch more efficiently than the Apollo missions Getting any where nearthe Moon is bey ond the capabilities of any propulsion sy stem that hasflown on a CubeSat to date but here at SSDS we are hoping to soonchange that

5 Deliver ChipSats to cool places

ChipSats are far smaller than CubeSats but their high surface area tomass ratio allows them to do things larger satellites canrsquot dream of Atthe ChipSat scale effects such as air drag solar pressure andelectromagnetic forces become much more important and affect thechiprsquos orbit significantly Using a CubeSat as a way to deploy ChipSatscan change where and how ChipSats can be deploy ed From low Earthorbit the CubeSat can time the release of the chips which will thenflutter downwards and cover a target area If the CubeSat has propulsionit can eject the chips in higher orbits where solar pressure forces arestronger than grav ity The chips can then use solar pressure to sail awayfrom the Earth and explore the far reaches of the Solar Sy stem

If you liked this article please give it a quick review on ycom binatoror Stum bleUpon Thanks

POSTED BY BRIAN WANG AT 9222011

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cphoenix bull 2 years ago

Why cant they just unfold a 30 cm baffle in petals that

were stored under the solar panels and fold out to

interlock

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