(12) United States Patent (To) Patent No.: US 9,938,023 B2 Clagett Et Al

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(12) United States Patent (To) Patent No.: US 9,938,023 B2 Clagett et al. (45) Date of Patent: Apr. 10, 2018

(54) SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR AN B64G 1/66 (2006.01) INTEGRATED SATELLITE PLATFORM B64G 1/44 (2006.01) HOIJ 49126 (2006.01) (71) Applicant: The United States of America as (52) U.S. Cl. represented by the Administrator of CPC ...... B64G 1/1021 (2013.01); B64G 1/222 the National Aeronautics and Space (2013.01); B64G 1/44 (2013.01); B64G 1/66 Administration, Washington, DC (US) (2013.01); HOIJ 49126 (2013.01) (72) Inventors: Charles E. Clagett, Accokeek, MD (58) Field of Classification Search (US); Luis H. Santos Soto, CPC .. B64G 1/44; B64G 1/66; B64G 1/222; HOIJ Greenbackville, VA (US); Scott V. 49/26 Hesh, Greenbackville, MD (US); Scott USPC ...... 244/172.6, 172.7 R. Starin, Washington, DC (US); See application file for complete search history. Salman L Sheikh, Silver Spring, MD (US); Michael Hesse, Annapolis, MD Primary Examiner Brian M O'Hara (US); Nikolaos Paschalidis, Silver Assistant Examiner Keith L Dixon Spring, MD (US); Michael A. Johnson, (74) Attorney, Agent, or Firm Heather Goo; Bryan A. Columbia, MD (US); Aprille J. Geurts; Mark P. Dvorscak Ericsson, Washington, DC (US)

(73) Assignee: The United States of America as (57) ABSTRACT represented by the Administrator of A system, method, and computer-readable storage devices the National Aeronautics and Space for a 6U CubeSat with a magnetometer boom. The example Administration, Washington, DC (US) 6U CubeSat can include an on-board computing device (*) Notice: Subject to any disclaimer, the term of this connected to an electrical power system, wherein the elec- patent is extended or adjusted under 35 trical power system receives power from at least one of a U.S.C. 154(b) by 390 days. battery and at least one solar panel, a first fluxgate sensor attached to an extendable boom, a release mechanism for (21) Appl. No.: 14/850,708 extending the extendable boom, at least one second fluxgate sensor fixed within the satellite, an ion neutral mass spec- (22) Filed: Sep. 10, 2015 trometer, and a relativistic electron/proton telescope. The on-board computing device can receive data from the first (65) Prior Publication Data fluxgate sensor, the at least one second fluxgate sensor, the ion neutral mass spectrometer, and the relativistic electron/ US 2017/0073087 Al Mar. 16, 2017 proton telescope via the bus, and can then process the data via an algorithm to deduce a geophysical signal. (51) Int. Cl. B64G 1/10 (2006.01) B64G 1/22 (2006.01) 10 Claims, 6 Drawing Sheets

106 110 112 100 108 REL. MECH.' SLIDE COMPACT RELATIVISTIC 102 ION NEUTRAL MASS ELECTRON PROTON BOOM/NO BOOM SPECTROMETER MAGNETOMETER TELESCOPE ...... T...... 1 ......

124 INTERFACE & FLEXIBLE ONBOARD RADIO SPECIAL SVC ELECTRICAL BATTERY 128 114 COMPUTER POWER SYSTEM BEACON GYRO X 4 118122 116-' I

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L~ ANTENNA 130 - 126 126 SOLAR PANELS 104

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TzG. z /300 318 .1, TASC SOLAR CELLS 302 011

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122 CUSTOMER INTERFACE CARD +5V FPSS 404 +5V RESETTABLE EPS FUSES OPTION +5V WHEELS 406 410 0 —12V AG VOLTAGE I—LIMITED —5V 402 412 ~EXPEMRIMENTS INVERTERS SWITCHES —5V INMS 110

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N U.S. Patent Apr. 10, 2018 Sheet 5 of 6 US 9,938,023 B2

CI—) 660

600 STORAGE DEVICE 630 640 650 MOD 1 662 INPUT 6901.01 MOD 2 664 DEVICE MEMORY RAM MOD 3 666 670 OUTPUT DEVICE BUS

COMMUNICAIION 680 INTERFACE 610 622 CACHE 1-*-;-,~PRO~CESSOR~~ 620 US 9,938,023 B2 N SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR AN However, the larger area and additional components of a 6U INTEGRATED SATELLITE PLATFORM CubeSat can require an enhanced bus and other support structure over a IU CubeSat. The improved CubeSat dis- STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY closed herein can measure ion and neutral composition on an SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT 5 instrument less than 2U in volume, and offers a reduced size by an order of magnitude, and also offers significant reduc- The invention described herein was made in part by tions in power requirements over the state of the art. employees of the United States Government and may be Numerous science instruments, some of which are pro- manufactured and used by or for the Government of the vided as examples herein, can benefit from added capabili- United States ofAmerica for governmental purposes without 10 ties and size of a 6U CubeSat. The 6U bus disclosed herein the payment of any royalties thereon or therefore. enables a greater range of Heliophysics science applications, while focusing on both smaller platforms and constellations BACKGROUND of smaller platforms. No other flight-proven 6U bus exists for applications within the Low Cost Access to Space 1. Technical Field 15 (LCAS) program. Therefore, the 6U CubeSat bus provided The present disclosure relates to satellite technology, and and disclosed herein enables a viable and cost-effective 6U more specifically, to an integrated platform for multiple platform for small, capable science platforms. types of sensors and devices in a small form factor satellite. The 6U CubeSat bus described herein can be used to 2. Introduction conduct small, yet meaningful, heliophysics scientific mis- CubeSats, short for cube satellites, have demonstrated 20 sions in a cost-effective way. In one embodiment, the 6U exceptional potential for low-cost science platforms in CubeSat bus can support instrumentation that provides mea- space. To-date, CubeSat buses employed for research have surements of high latitude Field-Aligned Currents (FAC), been primarily based on the proven 3U (30x10x10 cm) which are a manifestation of magnetospheric dynamic standard, while mostly successful, limits instrument accom- responses to solar wind disturbances and to energy input in modation. Payloads are constrained primarily due to limited 25 the upper atmosphere. Simultaneous observations of densi- spacecraft resources such as power and volume. Science ties and velocities of the ion and neutral constituents will instruments can benefit from added capabilities provided by provide the response of the upper atmosphere, while mea- a 6U CubeSat (30 cmx20 cmx10 cm). A viable 6U bus surements of energetic proton and ion particle fluxes are would enable a greater range of Heliophysics science appli- included to determine the response of the radiation belts. cations, and address the Decadal Surveys focus on both 30 Because of the uncertainty in the final orbit of such a smaller platforms and constellations of smaller platforms. mission, the science objectives are flexible and adaptable to Unfortunately, no flight-proven 6U bus is in existence, even either a high or low inclination orbit. At high inclination for applications within the Low Cost Access to Space orbits, the 6U CubeSat is well-suited to study the precipi- (LCAS) program. Therefore, the provision of a viable and tation of radiation belt particles into Earth's upper atmo- cost-effective 6U platform is an important step to achieve the 35 sphere, the auroral circuit, and composition changes in the Decadal Surveys goal of small, capable science platforms. auroral zone due to coupling with the solar wind. At low Further, the 6U standard opens many possibilities, but at the inclinations, the 6U CubeSat can focus more on the elec- same time introduces multiple obstacles to be overcome. trodynamics oflow -latitude phenomena. Because ofthis, the measurement objectives and requirements are determined BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 40 based on experiences with similar larger instruments that have flown previously. FIG. 1 illustrates an example system 6U system architec- FIG. 1 illustrates an example system 6U system architec- ture; ture 100. The 6U CubeSat can integrate numerous compo- FIG. 2 illustrates the exterior of an example 6U satellite; nents, some of which are off-the-shelf components, into an FIGS. 3A and 3B illustrate different angles of the exterior 45 operational bus system. Some instruments can be integrated of an example 6U satellite and the various external-facing to evaluate subsystem functionality. Other example compo- components; nents include science instruments such as a magnetometer FIG. 4 illustrates a detailed view of the interface and 102, an ion/neutral mass spectrometer 110, an energetic special services card shown in FIG. 1; particle spectrometer, a gyroscope 116, an onboard compute FIGS. 5A, 513, and 5C illustrate the example 6U satellite 50 118, a battery 124, a compact relativistic electron proton of FIG. 2 with the magnetometer boom extended; and telescope 112, a radio beacon 128, an antenna 130, solar FIG. 6 illustrates an example system embodiment. panels 126, a global positioning system transceiver 120, and an interface and special services module 114. DETAILED DESCRIPTION The example magnetometer 102 includes a dual approach 55 to CubeSat magnetometry and can include a total of up to 4 A system, method, and computer-readable storage devices separate fluxgate sensors 104, 106. One miniature in-house are disclosed for enhanced capabilities of a 6U CubeSat. The fluxgate 106 is extended at the end of a small boom in the CubeSat standard provides size and weight guidelines for typical science magnetometer configuration, and provides miniaturized satellites that are simpler to design, build, test, the ground truth magnetic field observations. A release launch, and operate while in orbit. A IU CubeSat is approxi- 60 mechanism 108 can hold the fluxgate 106 in place or release mately 10 centimeters cubed.A 6U CubeSat is larger and can it as ordered by the onboard computer 118. The other provide many of the benefits of a IU CubeSat while simul- fluxgate sensors 104 are distributed within the bus at dif- taneously enabling larger instrumentation and support infra- ferent locations in the CubeSat, feeding data to the onboard structure to be contained therein. For example, a 6U Cube- computer 118 which processes the data via an algorithm to Sat is approximately 10 centimeters by 20 centimeters by 30 65 deduce the geophysical signal after removing and/or centimeters. 6U CubeSats offer a solution for reliable, small accounting for noise contributions from the bus. Active science-grade missions with inexpensive development. comparison of the output from magnetometers 104 with that US 9,938,023 B2 3 _►, of the boom magnetometer 106 will demonstrate a more custom voltages, adding power switching capabilities, serv- flexible and inexpensive approach to flight magnetometry ing as CubeSat Kit Bus external components interface, that would not require a boom. Particle spectrometers can current monitoring and extended general purpose input/ provide in situ observations of ion and neutral densities as output lines among others. It also has four off-the-shelf well as their composition, and measurements of radiation 5 inertial measurement units (IMU) arranged in a square belt fluxes at low earth orbits. formation to allow for improved sensing accuracy over a The fluxgate 106 on the boom can measure the vector single such IMU. The card 114 can have other numbers of magnetic field. The fluxgates 104 not on the boom, or no IMU's as well. For example, FIG. 4 shows three gyros 116. boom magnetometer (nBM), can measure vector magnetic Other features of the card 114 can include one or more of fields without the use of a boom by using distributed io an INMS interface, magnetometer support, a reaction wheel compact sensors within the spacecraft volume and continu- interface, a GPS interface with mechanical support for a ously characterizing then subtracting the spacecraft induced GPS daughter card, Ipps routed to a CubeSat Kit Bus, error fields, which are normally avoided by placing the unused pins for a spare interface, a cadet transceiver inter- magnetometer on a boom. This nBM system will enable face, a 3A buck converter and current regulation for use in science-grade magnetic field measurements without the 15 deployment devices, analog-to-digital converters, and a necessity of flying a boom, which often adds risk and digital extension interface. complexity to a mission, and will open the window of FIG. 5A illustrates the example 6U satellite 504 of FIG. adding magnetic field measurements into rides of opportu- 2 with the magnetometer boom in a non-extended position. nity. The example 6U satellite 504 also depicts the ion neutral The compact ion and neutral mass spectrometer (INMS) 20 mass spectrometer field of view openings 510 in the exterior 110 measures ion and neutral composition and densities. surface. FIG. 5B illustrates the example 6U satellite 502 of These measurements facilitate the study of the dynamic FIG. 2 with the magnetometer boom extended. FIG. 5C ionosphere-thermosphere-mesosphere system and coupling illustrates the example 6U satellite 500 of FIG. 2 with the to the steady state background atmospheric conditions. magnetometer boom 506 extended from a different angle, INMS 110 will enable new mission measurements, includ- 25 with the magnetometer 508 being positioned at the end of ing constellations of CubeSats that would allow us to resolve the boom so the boom is at the far-most point away from the temporal vs. spatial variations of E and F region dynamics. 6U satellite 500 during operation. The boom can be extend- The energetic particle spectrometer is the Compact Rela- able and retractable via one or more hinge, motor, spring, tivistic Electron Proton Telescope (CREPT) 112. CREPT elbow joint, and so forth. 112 is a solid-state particle telescope, which characterizes 30 Having disclosed some basic system components and charged particle fluxes with very high time resolution to concepts, the disclosure now turns to the exemplary method study radiation belt dynamics. CREPT can monitor relativ- embodiment shown in FIG. 6. For the sake of clarity, the istic electrons energization and loss in the radiation belts, in method is described in terms of an exemplary system 100 as particular, electron loss due to microbursts. shown in FIG.1 configured to practice the method. The steps FIG. 2 illustrates the exterior 200 of an example 6U 35 outlined herein are exemplary and can be implemented in CubeSat satellite. Solar panels 202 can cover all or part of any combination thereof, including combinations that the exterior surface, and can be connected to the flexible exclude, add, or modify certain steps. electrical power system 122 of the CubeSat. The energy Various embodiments of the disclosure are described in supplied via the solar panels 202 can power various com- detail above. While specific implementations are described, ponents, such as the onboard computer 118 or the radio 40 it should be understood that this is done for illustration beacon 128, or can be stored in a battery 124. The exterior purposes only. Other components and configurations may be 200 of the CubeSat can also include a data port 204 for used without parting from the spirit and scope of the interfacing with, controlling, writing, and/or reading data disclosure. A description of a basic general purpose system from one or more components of the CubeSat. or computing device in FIG. 6 which can be employed to FIGS. 3A and 3B illustrate different angles of the exterior 45 practice the concepts, methods, and techniques disclosed is of an example 6U CubeSat satellite and the various external- illustrated below. All or part of the general purpose com- facing components. FIG. 3A shows the nadir 308, zenith puting device can be included as the onboard computer 118 306, wake 302, and ram 304 of the example 6U CubeSat. of FIG. 1. FIG. 3B shows the external facing portions of various With reference to FIG. 6, an exemplary system and/or components, such as a coarse sun sensor 310, base plate 312, 50 computing device 600 includes a processing unit (CPU or temperature sensors 314, solar cells 316, fine sun sensors processor) 620 and a system bus 610 that couples various 318, electrical ground support equipment and equipment to system components including the system memory 630 such remove before flight 320, compact relativistic electron/ as read only memory (ROM) 640 and random access proton telescope 322, ion neutral mass spectrometer 324, memory (RAM)650 to the processor 620. The system 600 and separation switches 326. 55 can include a cache 622 of high-speed memory connected FIG. 4 illustrates a detailed view of the interface and directly with, in close proximity to, or integrated as part of special services card 114 as shown in FIG. 1. The interface the processor 620. The system 600 copies data from the card 114 can interface with the electrical power system 122, memory 630 and/or the storage device 660 to the cache 622 ion neutral mass spectrometer 110, onboard computer 118, for quick access by the processor 620. In this way, the cache and gyroscopes 116 as shown in FIG. 1. The interface card 60 provides a performance boost that avoids processor 620 114 can also interface with or include other components, delays while waiting for data. These and other modules can such as resettable fuses 410, voltage inverters 412, i-limited control or be configured to control the processor 620 to switches 408, fine pointing sun sensor 414, wheels 406, and perform various operations or actions. Other system magnetic experiments 402. memory 630 may be available for use as well. The memory The special services card 114 is a custom printed circuit 65 630 can include multiple different types of memory with board that expands the capability of commercial off the shelf different performance characteristics. It can be appreciated products. Duties include but are not limited to: creating that the disclosure may operate on a computing device 600 US 9,938,023 B2 5 6 with more than one processor 620 or on a group or cluster cable containing a bit stream and the like, may also be used of computing devices networked together to provide greater in the exemplary operating environment. Tangible com- processing capability. The processor 620 can include any puter-readable storage media, computer-readable storage general purpose processor and a hardware module or soft- devices, or computer-readable memory devices, expressly ware module, such as module 1 662, module 2 664, and 5 exclude media such as transitory waves, energy, carrier module 3 666 stored in storage device 660, configured to signals, electromagnetic waves, and signals per se. control the processor 620 as well as a special-purpose To enable user interaction with the computing device 600, processor where software instructions are incorporated into an input device 690 represents any number of input mecha- the processor. The processor 620 may be a self-contained nisms, such as a microphone for speech, a touch-sensitive computing system, containing multiple cores or processors, io screen for gesture or graphical input, keyboard, mouse, a bus, memory controller, cache, etc. A multi-core processor motion input, speech and so forth. An output device 670 can may be symmetric or asymmetric. The processor 620 can also be one or more of a number of output mechanisms include multiple processors, such as a system having mul- known to those of skill in the art. In some instances, tiple, physically separate processors in different sockets, or multimodal systems enable a user to provide multiple types a system having multiple processor cores on a single physi- 15 of input to communicate with the computing device 600. cal chip. Similarly, the processor 620 can include multiple The communications interface 680 generally governs and distributed processors located in multiple separate comput- manages the user input and system output. There is no ing devices, but working together such as via a communi- restriction on operating on any particular hardware arrange- cations network. Multiple processors or processor cores can ment and therefore the basic hardware depicted may easily share resources such as memory 630 or the cache 622, or can 20 be substituted for improved hardware or firmware arrange- operate using independent resources. The processor 620 can ments as they are developed. include one or more of a state machine, an application For clarity of explanation, the illustrative system embodi- specific integrated circuit (ASIC), or a programmable gate ment is presented as including individual functional blocks array (PGA) including a field PGA. including functional blocks labeled as a "processor" or The system bus 610 may be any of several types of bus 25 processor 620. The functions these blocks represent may be structures including a memory bus or memory controller, a provided through the use of either shared or dedicated peripheral bus, and a local bus using any of a variety of bus hardware, including, but not limited to, hardware capable of architectures. A basic input/output (BIOS) stored in ROM executing software and hardware, such as a processor 620, 640 or the like, may provide the basic routine that helps to that is purpose-built to operate as an equivalent to software transfer information between elements within the computing 30 executing on a general purpose processor. For example the device 600, such as during start-up. The computing device functions of one or more processors presented in FIG. 6 may 600 further includes storage devices 660 or computer- be provided by a single shared processor or multiple pro- readable storage media such as a hard disk drive, a magnetic cessors. (Use of the term "processor" should not be con- disk drive, an optical disk drive, tape drive, solid-state drive, strued to refer exclusively to hardware capable of executing RAM drive, removable storage devices, a redundant array of 35 software.) Illustrative embodiments may include micropro- inexpensive disks(RAID), hybrid storage device, or the like. cessor and/or digital signal processor(DSP) hardware, read- The storage device 660 can include software modules 662, only memory (ROM) 640 for storing software performing 664, 666 for controlling the processor 620. The system 600 the operations described below, and random access memory can include other hardware or software modules. The stor- (RAM)650 for storing results. Very large scale integration age device 660 is connected to the system bus 610 by a drive 40 (VLSI) hardware embodiments, as well as custom VLSI interface. The drives and the associated computer-readable circuitry in combination with a general purpose DSP circuit, storage devices provide nonvolatile storage of computer- may also be provided. readable instructions, data structures, program modules and The logical operations of the various embodiments are other data for the computing device 600. In one aspect, a implemented as: (1) a sequence of computer implemented hardware module that performs a particular function 45 steps, operations, or procedures running on a programmable includes the software component stored in a tangible com- circuit within a general use computer, (2) a sequence of puter-readable storage device in connection with the neces- computer implemented steps, operations, or procedures run- sary hardware components, such as the processor 620, bus ning on a specific-use programmable circuit; and/or (3) 610, display 670, and so forth, to carry out a particular interconnected machine modules or program engines within function. In another aspect, the system can use a processor 50 the programmable circuits. The system 600 shown in FIG. 6 and computer-readable storage device to store instructions can practice all or part of the recited methods, can be a part which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor of the recited systems, and/or can operate according to to perform operations, a method or other specific actions. instructions in the recited tangible computer-readable stor- The basic components and appropriate variations can be age devices. Such logical operations can be implemented as modified depending on the type of device, such as whether 55 modules configured to control the processor 620 to perform the device 600 is a small, handheld computing device, a particular functions according to the programming of the desktop computer, or a computer server. When the processor module. For example, FIG.6 illustrates three modules Modl 620 executes instructions to perform "operations", the pro- 662, Mod2 664, and Mod3 666, which are modules config- cessor 620 can perform the operations directly and/or facili- ured to control the processor 620. These modules may be tate, direct, or cooperate with another device or component 60 stored on the storage device 660 and loaded into RAM 650 to perform the operations. or memory 630 at runtime or may be stored in other Although the exemplary embodiment(s) described herein computer-readable memory locations. employs the hard disk 660, other types of computer-readable One or more parts of the example computing device 600, storage devices which can store data that are accessible by up to and including the entire computing device 600, can be a computer, such as magnetic cassettes, flash memory cards, 65 virtualized. For example, a virtual processor can be a digital versatile disks (DVDs), cartridges, random access software object that executes according to a particular memories (RAMS) 650, read only memory (ROM) 640, a instruction set, even when a physical processor of the same US 9,938,023 B2 7 8 type as the virtual processor is unavailable. A virtualization sor-based or programmable consumer electronics, network layer or a virtual "host" can enable virtualized components PCs, minicomputers, mainframe computers, and the like. of one or more different computing devices or device types Embodiments may also be practiced in distributed comput- by translating virtualized operations to actual operations. ing environments where tasks are performed by local and Ultimately however, virtualized hardware of every type is 5 remote processing devices that are linked (either by hard- implemented or executed by some underlying physical hardwired links, wireless links, or by a combination thereof) ware. Thus, a virtualization compute layer can operate on through a communications network. In a distributed com- top of a physical compute layer. The virtualization compute puting environment, program modules may be located in layer can include one or more of a virtual machine, an both local and remote memory storage devices. overlay network, a hypervisor, virtual switching, and any 10 The various embodiments described above are provided other virtualization application. by way of illustration only and should not be construed to The processor 620 can include all types of processors limit the scope of the disclosure. Various modifications and disclosed herein, including a virtual processor. However, changes may be made to the principles described herein when referring to a virtual processor, the processor 620 without following the example embodiments and applica- includes the software components associated with executing 15 tions illustrated and described herein, and without departing the virtual processor in a virtualization layer and underlying from the spirit and scope of the disclosure. Claim language hardware necessary to execute the virtualization layer. The reciting "at least one of a set indicates that one member of system 600 can include a physical or virtual processor 620 the set or multiple members of the set satisfy the claim. that receive instructions stored in a computer-readable stor- We claim: age device, which cause the processor 620 to perform certain 20 1. A satellite, the satellite comprising: operations. When referring to a virtual processor 620, the an on-board computing device connected to an electrical system also includes the underlying physical hardware power system, wherein the electrical power system executing the virtual processor 620. receives power from at least one of a battery and at least Embodiments within the scope of the present disclosure one solar panel; may also include tangible and/or non-transitory computer- 25 a first fluxgate sensor attached at a distal end of an readable storage devices for carrying or having computer- extendable boom, wherein the extendable boom is executable instructions or data structures stored thereon. contained within the satellite in a retracted position, Such tangible computer-readable storage devices can be any and wherein the extendable boom is contained outside available device that can be accessed by a general purpose the satellite in an extended position; or special purpose computer, including the functional design 30 a release mechanism for extending the extendable boom; of any special purpose processor as described above. By way at least one second fluxgate sensor fixed within the of example, and not limitation, such tangible computer- satellite; readable devices can include RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD- an ion neutral mass spectrometer; and ROM or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage or a relativistic electron/proton telescope, other magnetic storage devices, or any other device which 35 wherein the on-board computing device is connected to can be used to carry or store desired program code in the the first fluxgate sensor, the at least one second fluxgate form of computer-executable instructions, data structures, or sensor, the ion neutral mass spectrometer, and the processor chip design. When information or instructions are relativistic electron/proton telescope via a bus, provided via a network or another communications connec- wherein the on-board computing device receives data tion (either hardwired, wireless, or combination thereof) to 40 from the first fluxgate sensor, the at least one second a computer, the computer properly views the connection as fluxgate sensor, the ion neutral mass spectrometer, and a computer-readable medium. Thus, any such connection is the relativistic electron/proton telescope via the bus, properly termed a computer-readable medium. Combina- and tions of the above should also be included within the scope wherein the on-board computing device processes the of the computer-readable storage devices. 45 data via an algorithm to deduce a geophysical signal. Computer-executable instructions include, for example, 2. The satellite of claim 1, wherein dimensions of the instructions and data which cause a general purpose com- satellite conform to a 6U CubeSat standard. puter, special purpose computer, or special purpose process- 3. The satellite of claim 2, wherein the dimensions are 10 ing device to perform a certain function or group of func- cmx20 cmx30 cm. tions. Computer-executable instructions also include 50 4. The satellite of claim 1, the satellite further comprising: program modules that are executed by computers in stand- an antenna, wherein the on-board computing device trans- alone or network environments. Generally, program mod- mits an indication of the geophysical signal via the ules include routines, programs, components, data struc- antenna. tures, objects, and the functions inherent in the design of 5. The satellite of claim 1, wherein the on-board comput- special-purpose processors, etc. that perform particular tasks 55 ing device removes noise contributions from the bus while or implement particular abstract data types. Computer-ex- deducing the geophysical signal. ecutable instructions, associated data structures, and pro- 6. The satellite of claim 1, wherein the on-board comput- gram modules represent examples of the program code ing device accounts for noise contributions from the bus means for executing steps of the methods disclosed herein. while deducing the geophysical signal. The particular sequence of such executable instructions or 60 7. The satellite of claim 1, the satellite further comprising: associated data structures represents examples of corre- a special services card comprising a printed circuit board sponding acts for implementing the functions described in that expands a capability of commercial products. such steps. 8. The satellite of claim 7, wherein the special services Other embodiments of the disclosure may be practiced in card further comprises component configure to perform one network computing environments with many types of com- 65 or more of operations comprising: puter system configurations, including personal computers, creating custom voltages; providing power switching hand-held devices, multi-processor systems, microproces- capabilities; US 9,938,023 B2 9 10 serving as an external components interface; current monitoring; and extending general purpose input/ output lines. 9. The satellite of claim 7, wherein the special service card further comprises at least one inertial measurement unit. 5 10. The satellite of claim 9, wherein the special service card further comprises 4 inertial measurement units configured in a square formation.