Small satellites beyond boundaries

Right-sizing Small Satellites

Spacecraft standardization has been a topic of great debate within the space community. This paper intends to be a provocative thought piece asking one fundamental question: “is there a ‘right size’ for small satellites?” In order to answer this question, we propose three top-down design factors for the space systems engineering process: spacecraft utility, mission utility, and optimum cost. Sp...

Deployable Reflectors for Small Satellites

A key limitation for future Small Satellite communications and radar missions will be available antenna reflector aperture. Two types of reflectors are dominant for satellite RF systems today, rigid, single-piece reflectors and deployable mesh reflectors. Single-piece reflectors are limited to the aperture that fits inside a launch vehicle without packaging the reflective surface. Mesh reflecto...

Telework: Working Beyond Organizatinoal Boundaries

CAST 2008: Beyond the Boundaries

For years, people have appealed to engineering as the dominant metaphor for how software testing should be done. Yet there are many other metaphors that could provide value to learning about patterns and principles in software testing. As professional testers and nonprofessional musicians, we observe that music affords such a metaphor. What are the parallels between music and testing—especially...

Pulsed Plasma Thrusters for Small Satellites

Since the Russian launch of the Zond-2 satellite in 1964 there have been over fifty years of research dedicated to the understanding of the first electric propulsion device to be flown in space, the Pulsed Plasma Thruster. The Pulsed Plasma Thruster originates from the evolution of the vacuum arc switch, but due to its microsecond operation time, the internal dynamics and nature of operation ha...