The idea of using a high-voltage electron beam with substantial current to actively probe magnetic field line connectivity in space has been discussed since the 1970s. However, its experimental realization onboard a magnetospheric spacecraft has never been accomplished because the tenuous magnetospheric plasma cannot provide the return current necessary to keep spacecraft charging under control...

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...

Fire prevention, detection, and suppression requirements for spacecraft have been developed primarily from established terrestrial and aircraft systems aided by the experience gained from previous space operations. However, the most important factor distinguishing spacecraft fire protection from terrestrial systems is the low-gravity environment that dominates fire and particulate behavior and ...

This paper addresses kinematic control of a redundant space manipulator mounted on a freeoating spacecraft. Redundancy of the system with respect to the number of task variables for spacecraft attitude and manipulator end-e ector pose is considered. Also, the problem of both spacecraft attitude and end-e ector orientation representation is tackled. A nonminimal singularity-free representation o...

We apply retrospective cost adaptive control (RCAC) to spacecraft attitude control with magnetic actuators. We compare two approaches to address the rank deficiency and time-varying nature of the input matrix. The first approach utilizes an average of the magnetic field based on a-priori knowledge, whereas the second approach uses three multi-input, single-output controllers. RCAC uses no infor...

During re-entry into earth’s atmosphere, a spacecraft suffers from loss of communication with the ground control station, known as communication blackout, due to formation of plasma around the re-entry spacecraft. This paper presents the theory and analysis of the communication blackout and its mitigation using static magnetic field method. The interaction between electromagnetic waves and plas...

Ground operations stipulate significant program costs and manpower requirements for both commercial and military satellite systems. Spacecraft manufacturers and government agencies are constantly seeking methods to ameliorate these aspects of spacecraft command and control operations in light of budgetary constraints. Recent efforts to address this problem have seen a rise in the application of...

Spacecraft control teams in the European Space Agency lack assistance for monitoring and diagnosis of space weather conditions related to spacecraft status in real-time. This paper discusses the Monitoring Tool of a Decision Support System that provides Flight Control Teams with useful Space Weather information (past, current and forecasted) to increase their ability to protect spacecraft compo...

It is well known that complete attitude control of a spacecraft is not possible with only one single-gimbal Variable-Speed Control Moment Gyro (VSCMG) due to the conservation of the angular momentum. However, partial attitude control without violating the angular momentum conservation principle is still possible. In this paper, feedback controllers that stabilize the angular velocity vector of ...

In order to provide a realistic, hands-on educational experience for spacecraft design students, three complimentary project-based spacecraft design activities have been developed. These design programs are similar given that each relies on simplicity, speed, and selfsufficiency. These attributes 1) allow students to understand the full technical design of a spacecraft system, 2) expose student...