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State of the Art Small Spacecraft Technology 2014

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NASA/TP–2014–216648/REV1 Small Spacecraft Technology State of the Art Mission Design Division Staff Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California July 2014 NASA STI Program . in Profile Since its founding, NASA has been CONFERENCE PUBLICATION. dedicated to the advancement of • Collected papers from scientific and aeronautics and space science. The technical conferences, symposia, NASA scientific and technical seminars, or other meetings information (STI) program plays a key sponsored or co-sponsored by part in helping NASA maintain this NASA. important role. SPECIAL PUBLICATION. Scientific, • The NASA STI Program operates technical, or historical information under the auspices of the Agency from NASA programs, projects, and Chief Information Officer. It collects, missions, often concerned with organizes, provides for archiving, and subjects having substantial public disseminates NASA’s STI. The NASA interest. STI Program provides access to the TECHNICAL TRANSLATION. NASA Aeronautics and Space • Database and its public interface, the English- language translations of NASA Technical Report Server, thus foreign scientific and technical providing one of the largest collection material pertinent to NASA’s of aeronautical and space science STI mission. in the world. Results are published in Specialized services also include both non-NASA channels and by creating custom thesauri, building NASA in the NASA STI Report Series, customized databases, and organizing which includes the following report and publishing research results. types: For more information about the NASA TECHNICAL PUBLICATION. STI Program, see the following: • Reports of completed research or a major significant phase of research Access the NASA STI program that present the results of NASA • programs and include extensive data home page at or theoretical analysis. Includes http://www.sti.nasa.gov compilations of significant scientific E-mail your question via the Internet and technical data and information • deemed to be of continuing to [email protected] reference value. NASA counterpart Fax your question to the NASA STI of peer-reviewed formal professional • papers, but having less stringent Help Desk at 443-757-5803 limitations on manuscript length and Phone the NASA STI Help Desk at extent of graphic presentations. • 443-757-5802 TECHNICAL MEMORANDUM. • Write to: Scientific and technical findings that • are preliminary or of specialized NASA STI Help Desk interest, e.g., quick release reports, NASA Center for AeroSpace working papers, and bibliographies Information that contain minimal annotation. 7115 Standard Drive Does not contain extensive analysis. Hanover, MD 21076–1320 CONTRACTOR REPORT. Scientific • and technical findings by NASA-sponsored contractors and grantees. NASA/TP–2014–216648/REV1 Small Spacecraft Technology State of the Art Mission Design Division Staff Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California National Aeronautics and Space Administration Ames Research Center Moffett Field, California 94035 July 2014 Acknowledgments This report has been based largely on desk research and published documents on small spacecraft technology. Helpful suggestions and comments were also received from numerous people at NASA Ames Research Center, and in particular the authors wish to acknowledge the contributions from Aaron Cohen, Cyrus Foster, Brian Lewis, David Mauro, Matthew Nehrenz, Matthew Sorgenfrei, and Michael Soulage. The use of trademarks or names of manufacturers in this report is for accurate reporting and does not constitute an official endorsement, either expressed or implied, of such products or manufacturers by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. Available from: NASA Center for AeroSpace Information National Technical Information Service 7115 Standard Drive 5301 Shawnee Road Hanover, MD 21076-1320 Alexandria, VA 22312 443-757-5802 703-605-6000 This report is also available in electronic form at http://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/files/Small_Spacecraft_Technology_State_of_the_Art_2014.pdf Abstract This report provides an overview of the current state of the art of small spacecraft technology. It was commissioned by NASA’s Small Space- craft Technology Program (SSTP) in mid-2013 in response to the rapid growth in interest in using small spacecraft for many types of missions in Earth orbit and beyond. For the sake of this assessment, small spacecraft are defined to be spacecraft with a mass less than 180 kg. This report provides a summary of the state of the art for each of the following small spacecraft technology domains: Complete spacecraft, Power, Propulsion, Attitude Determination and Control, Structures, Ma- terials and Mechanisms, Thermal Control, Command and Data Han- dling, Communications, Integration, Launch and Deployment, and Ground Data Systems and Operations. Due to the high popularity of cubesats, particular emphasis is placed on the state-of-the-art of cubesat-related technology. 1 Form Approved REPORT DOCUMENTATION PAGE OMB No. 0704–0188 The public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 1 hour per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to Department of Defense, Washington Headquarters Services, Directorate for Information Operations and Reports (0704-0188), 1215 Jefferson Davis Highway, Suite 1204, Arlington, VA 22202-4302. Respondents should be aware that notwithstanding any other provision of law, no person shall be subject to any penalty for failing to comply with a collection of information if it does not display a currently valid OMB control number. PLEASE DO NOT RETURN YOUR FORM TO THE ABOVE ADDRESS. 1. REPORT DATE (DD-MM-YYYY) 2. REPORT TYPE 3. DATES COVERED (From - To) 01-07-2014 Technical Publication 4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE 5a. CONTRACT NUMBER Small Spacecraft Technology State of the Art 5b. GRANT NUMBER 5c. PROGRAM ELEMENT NUMBER 6. AUTHOR(S) 5d. PROJECT NUMBER Mission Design Division Staff 5e. TASK NUMBER 5f. WORK UNIT NUMBER 7. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES) 8. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION NASA Ames Research Center REPORT NUMBER Moffett Field, California 94035 A– 9. SPONSORING/MONITORING AGENCY NAME(S) AND ADDRESS(ES) 10. SPONSOR/MONITOR’S ACRONYM(S) National Aeronautics and Space Administration NASA Washington, DC 20546-0001 11. SPONSOR/MONITOR’S REPORT NUMBER(S) NASA/TP–2014–216648/REV1 12. DISTRIBUTION/AVAILABILITY STATEMENT Unclassified-Unlimited Subject Category Availability: NASA CASI (443) 757-5802 13. SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES An electronic version can be found at http://ntrs.nasa.gov. 14. ABSTRACT This report provides an overview of the current state of the art of small spacecraft technology. It was commissioned by NASA’s Small Spacecraft Technology Program (SSTP) in mid-2013 in response to the rapid growth in interest in using small spacecraft for many types of missions in Earth orbit and beyond. For the sake of this assessment, small spacecraft are defined to be spacecraft with a mass less than 180 kg. This report provides a summary of the state of the art for each of the following small spacecraft technology domains: Complete spacecraft, Power, Propulsion, Attitude Determination and Control, Structures, Materials and Mechanisms, Thermal Control, Command and Data Handling, Communications, Integration, Launch and Deployment, and Ground Data Systems and Operations. Due to the high popularity of cubesats, particular emphasis is placed on the state-of-the-art of cubesat-related technology. 15. SUBJECT TERMS spacecraft, technology, nanosat, smallsat 16. SECURITY CLASSIFICATION OF: 17. LIMITATION OF 18. NUMBER 19a. NAME OF RESPONSIBLE PERSON a. REPORT b. ABSTRACT c. THIS PAGE ABSTRACT OF STI Help Desk (email: [email protected]) PAGES 19b. TELEPHONE NUMBER (Include area code) U U U UU (443) 757-5802 Standard Form 298 (Rev. 8/98) Prescribed by ANSI Std. Z39.18 . Disclaimer The document lists or describes many specific products and technologies as examples and references but their inclusion does not imply any endorsement by NASA. Failure to include any specific products or technologies that might be considered relevant under a particular topic was unintentional. NASA Ames Research Center, Mission Design Division September, 2013 Division Chief: Chad Frost Project Manager: Elwood Agasid Contributing Authors: David Biggs, John Conley, Andres Dono Perez, Nicolas Faber, Anthony Genova, Andrew Gonzales, Alessandro Grasso, James Harpur, Steven Hu, Luke Idziak, Sarah Jolitz, Jonas Jonsson, John Love, Yosuke Nakamura, Andrew Nuttall, Robin Reil, Vibha Srivastava, Travis Swenson, and Sasha Weston Table of Contents EXECUTIVE(SUMMARY(.........................................................................................................................................(2! 1.! INTRODUCTION(...........................................................................................................................................(9! 2.! SPACECRAFT(..............................................................................................................................................(13! 3.! POWER(......................................................................................................................................................(17! 4.! PROPULSION(.............................................................................................................................................(30!
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