the next challenge: pico-satellite...

Huge Perspectives for Small Satellites

Pico-Satellites for Internet of Space Applications

Prof. Dr. Klaus SchillingZentrum für Telematik

Magdalene-Schoch-Str. 5D-97074 Würzburg, Germany

[email protected]

2nd IEEE IoT Vertical and Topical Summit: IoT meets IoS, Orlando, 20.1.2019

The Next Challenge:

Pico-Satellite Formations


Next technology driver :

Internet of Things (IoT)

with expected 25 billion

nodes by 2020 includes

significant fraction not

covered by fiber glas

Internet of Space (IoS)

promoted by IEEE

Changing markets for Small Satellites:

From Academia to Commerce - since 2014

the majority of small satellites is commercial

2017


Small Satellites: From technology

demonstration to Earth Observation

2009 - 2013 2014 - 2016Source:

SpaceWorks, 2014 Nano/Microsatellite Market Assessment


The Small Satellite Market

Largest expected increase in CubeSat constellations.

Predictions of launches for 2017 are corrected from

250 (as in the table) to 475 pico- and nano-satellites

Expected perspectives

• towards decentralized distributed spacecraft systems

• from constellations (individually controlled from

ground) to self-organizing formations in orbit

Small satellites offer

• faster innovation cycles

due to shorter satellite

realization period

• at the cost of one

traditional satellite

many small satellites

can be provided

• use of high perfor-

mance commercial

components


Motivation for Future Commercial Growth

Global market volume in IoT:2017: 195 Billion $2020: 457 Billion $expected yearly groth rate 30 %(source VDI-Nachrichten 20.4.2018)

Source:Booz & C 2012

Internet of Things (IoT)

is expected to connect

until 2020 more than 25

billion devices.

Source:CISCO

Internet of Space

“Internet of Things” requires also data access to remote locations (by example oil platforms in deep sea, mines in mountains,…) and to mobile systems (trains crossing deserts, transport drones, autonomous cars, airplanes over the oceans, ships on sea, ….)


By using pico-satellites a space based communication system can provide the following properties…

• global availability

• 24/7 h service

• low cost implementation opportunities

• support of energy-autonomous sensor systems

• safe and high availability data transfer for professional applications (monitoring, process

management and control, ...)

Pico-Satellites support paradigm change in space technology towards “faster – less expensive –

high commercialization potential”

Introduction


Earlier Approaches for global telecommunication networks: Iridium, GlobalStar, …

Recent announcements:

• OneWeb asked for permission of operations of 720

LEO-satellites in V-band and an additional constellation

in Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) of 1.280 satellites.

• Boeing proposed a global network of initially 1.396, later

2.956 satellites in low Earth orbits (LEO) in V-band (37 GHz up

to low 50 GHz-range)

• SpaceX, analyses a LEO-constellation in

V-band composed of 7.518 satellites, following the

earlier proposed 4.425 satellites in Ka- and Ku-Band.

• The Canadian company Telesat planes its LEO

constellation in V-band as successor of the Ka-Band LEO-constellation with 117

satellites.

• Samsung planed 2015 a 4600-satellite-constellation in

1.400 km altitude, providing 200 Gigabytes Internet capacity per month.

Internet of Space Market Development


Planet produces pico-satellites with dimension

30 cm x 10 cm x 10 cm for Earth observation

with about 3 - 5 m resolution

Picture taken by Dove

pico-satellites

Commercial Perspectives for Small Satellites

in Earth Observation

2017: about 150 Dove

satellites flying in a

constellation are operational

The companies Spire (San Francisco) and

PlanetiQ (Boulder, Colorado) detect with a

pico-satellite constellation atmospheric deviations

of GPS-signals and infer weather characteristics

(like temperature, pressure, humidity)

Application Areas for Pico-Satellite Formations

Key Technology Development Areas:

National Academy of Science Recommendations“ Constellations of 10 to 100 science spacecraft would have the potential to enable

critical measurements for space science and related space weather, weather and

climate, as well as some astrophysics and planetary science topics. Therefore NASA

should develop the capability to implement large-scale constellation missions

taking advantage of CubeSats or CubeSat derived technology and a philosophy of

evolutionary development.

NASA and other relevant agencies should invest in technology

development programs in four areas that the committee believes

will have the largest impact on science missions:

• high bandwidth communications,

• precision attitude control,

• propulsion and

• the development of miniaturized instrument technology.”

(source: NAS report “Achieving Science with CubeSats”, 2016)

Full report can be downloaded at: www.nap.edu/cubesats

http://www.nap.edu/cubesats



Propulsion

Propulsive capabilities in terms of effective CubeSat velocity change for every 100 g of propellant

(source: NAS report “Achieving Science with CubeSats”, 2016)

Technology developments for pico-satellite formations

Improvement of attitude control capabilities with time. Many scientific missions especially in

astrophysics, would benefit from control below a few tens of arcseconds

. (source: NAS report “Achieving Science with CubeSats”,2016)


Attitude and Orbit Determination & Control

Current Technology Achievements for Pico-Satellites

ZfT / S4 GmbH /Uni Würzburg: Our Expertise

for distributed networked pico-satellite systemsRoles: • Uni Würzburg has emphasis on basic research

• ZfT acts as technology provider

• S4 GmbH is providing commercial, advanced pico-satellite products

(UWE = University Würzburg’s Experimental satellites)

2025 CloudCT: computer tomography of clouds by 10 pico-satellites

2020 TIM, TOM satellite formation with 12 pico-satellites

- photogrammetry for Earth Observation

2020 QUBE secure communication by

quantum technologies

2019 NetSat-1 to NetSat-4 Formation

– Formation Control, DTNs, MANets

2018 UWE-4

- Position & Orbit Control

2013 UWE-3

- Attitude Control

2009 UWE-2

- Attitude- and Orbit Determination

2005 UWE-1

- Telecommunication “Internet in Space”UWE-3


Reliable Data Handling by Commercial Low Power On

Board Microprocessors Using Radiation Shielding by

Software

• Miniaturization leads to higher susceptibility to spaceradiation environment

• Only commercial of the shelf electronics was used

• Fault detection, identificationand recovery by software and simple watch-dog function

Despite significant radiation encountered, UWE-3 runs now since launch for more than 5 yearswithout any interruption, despite encountered SEUs and latch-ups

Future developments address provision of distributed computational resources integrated on different spacecraft of a formation

Redundant microcontrollers withmutual supervision and recovery

Redundant serial flash for mass storage

High Precison real-time clock

latchup protection and quad-redundant power cycling unit

Technology Challenge:

Reliable Robust Pico-Satellites


Attitude Determination and Control System

Integrated magnetic torquer, Sun

sensor and magnetometer on the

backside of each solar array panel

Miniature reaction wheelcombined with low power ADCScontrol board




3-Axes attitude control systemFour such miniature reaction wheels are combined to form a 3-axes control system with nominal operation power need of just 0.5 W, providing even redundancy by the fourth wheel; for desaturation magnetorquers are used.

Miniature 3-Axes Attitude

Precision Control System

• Efficient Reaction Wheel• Momentum storage 2.0 mNms

• Nominal rotational speed 19 000 rpm

• Nominal torque 0.1 mNm

• Mass < 20 g

• Dimension 20×20×20 mm

• Power (nominal) < 200 mW

Informatik VII:Robotik und Telematik

Forschungszentrum Adaptive RobotikPico-Satellite FormationsComputer Science VII:

Robotics & TelematicsProf. Dr. Schilling

Electric Propulsion System for Orbit Control and De-Orbitingis flown on UWE-4 (launched December 2018)

Determination of attitude by

magnetometers, gyros and Sun sensors,

while an electrical propulsion system is

used for corrections

Electrical propulsion

systems comparing

FEEP- und Micro-

Arc-Thrusters

Technology Challenge: Orbit Control for Pico-Satellites


UNISEC Europe Bus Design:

1st time implemented in UWE-3

Miniaturized, flexible and modular structure

allows easy integration of instruments, parts and components from different

partners

Standardization Challenge:

Flexible Design for Electrical Interfaces


Standardization of electrical IF: no Harness,

Modular and Flexible Satellite System Design

Technology Innovations: Standards

Electrical IF Standards supported by UNISEC Europehttp://unisec-europe.eu/standards/bus/

http://unisec-europe.eu/standards/bus/


Development Boards for

UNISEC Europe Electrical Interface Standard

Related development boards support development implementation phase as well as

EGSE functionalities after launch. Can be ordered from www.s4-space.com

Helpful features:

• provides efficient interfaces to

computers during development

and simulation tests

• supports flexible, modular

satellite architecture

• provides fast and easy access

for comparisons between

different variants of

subsystems

• easy integration: realizes

UNISEC Europe electrical

interface standard

Technology Innovations: Standards


Spin-offs ZfT and S4 GmbH offer a broad spectrum

of high-performance CubSat products and reliable, low-

power miniature Subsystems (OBDH, AOCS, backplane,…)

taylored to costumer needs

Our Products

Our ambition:

High quality space products

at smallest size possible

Application Areas

LNA

PA

RX/TX SW

Synthesizer

MODEM

Mixer

Antenne

40,00

20

,00

6,5

0

14,00

14

,00

Ref. Clk

RF FilterIF Filter

Inter-Satellite Link: X-Band Antenna

Frequency 10,475 GHz

Relative Distance 100 km

Application Areas

Optical Link Capacity

OSIRIS4CubeSat (by DLR IKN)• Highly compact system design

(~0,3U) • Data rates up to 100 Mbit/s at 8 W

power consumption • Active beam steering + body pointing • Basis for scientific and demonstration

missions

Sender module of 4 laserdiodes with outcouplers, polarizing (PBS) and polarization independent (BS) beamnspliitters , as well as a λ/2 –plate rotating the polarization

Orbits for Formations

The orbitsFour nano-satellites in a Cartwheel-Helix formation


90 % of worldwide transports are done by ships. The Automatic Identification System (AIS) is used to avoid collisions. The first AIS data from AISSat-1 (a 20 cm cube). The yellow and orange symbols show the new AIS data that the satellite gives in addition to the data from the land-based network shown in turquoise symbols. (credits: FFI)

The Automatic Identification System (AIS) for

Railway Transport Tracking


Concrete Examples

GP-Aims – Monitoring of Railway Traffic by Pico-SatellitesRailways provide efficient and ecological mean for inter-continental

transport. Tracking of containers can be economically realized by a

network of pico-satellites in LEO. Sensor and localisation data from trains

will be transferred to the monitoring

and control center. Relevance for inter-

national program “one belt, one road”.

Partner consortium:


GP-AIMSMotivation for prevention of accidents

Severe accident in Viareggio/Italy 2009 due to broken axle

Navigation unit:NavMaster RT-EX

The Automatic Identification System (AIS) for Railway Transport Tracking


GP-AIMSData acquisition/telematics

RodoTAG® with data logger

aJour® Telematics unitt

RodoTAG® withexternal energy supply

The Automatic Identification System (AIS) for Railway Transport Tracking


GP-AIMSVisualisation

• important events are marked at the railway route

• visualisation enables survey representation or high resolution zoom

• further interesting visualisation potential will be realized with availability of first test datas

The Automatic Identification System (AIS) for

Railway Transport Tracking


Industrial Examples

Industrial partners

Injection molding machine 52 at

Procter & Gamble facility

Robotic arm and RobOffice Software

by KUKA industry


Telemaintance-ToolInteraction

Observed savings:

Reduced maintenance costs

(especially by external

technicians)

Secure, QoS

regulated connection

Mobile Environment

of the service

technician: tablet,

data glass

Control station: Chat, File-

Transfer, Robot-Control,

Multi-Cam, Paint


Application Scenarios:

Quantum Encryption via Satellite for

Secure and Bugproof Communication: Project QUBE

S4 and ZfT build a small and cost-efficient satellite,

carrying as payload a quantum computing equipment

(LMU Munich, MPL Erlangen) and optical link

(DLR Oberpfaffenhofen) in order to test key

components for secure communication

China’s Micius satellite, launched in

August 2016 on the frontpage of

“Science” June 2017


Our Missions: in Telecommuncations

QUBE - Quantum encryption via satellite

QUBE pico-satellite – Exploded View




QUBE ground station – Optical Antenna




Future Pico-Satellite Network for Quantum Key distribution in

Encryption Applications

ZfT-Test Facilities for Pico-Satellite Formations

Preparations for Würzburg’s

Multi Satellite Simulation Environment

Turntables providing high precision and high

dynamics capabilities for inter-satellite link testing


Technology achievements in the field of small satellites

modular, flexible design with standardized interfaces via backplane

suitable attitude determination and control capabilities

robust miniaturized on-board data handling system

orbit control capabilities by electric propulsion

Networked satellite systems offer efficient approaches for

high spatial and temporal resolution of observation data

affordable low-bandwidth communication

cooperatively solving faster more complex tasks by parallelization

higher fault tolerance and robustness of the overall system

scalability (according to application needs further satellites can be added)

Application aspects

Efficiency of flow of materials and logistics can be increased at global

scale by networked satellite systems

Closing the control loop via realtime communication links by LEO

satellites enables interactive solutions

Conclusions

the next challenge: pico-satellite...

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