Pathfinding Interplanetary Bus Capability for the Cal Poly Cubesat Laboratory Through the Development of a Phobos-Deimos Mission Concept
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PATHFINDING INTERPLANETARY BUS CAPABILITY FOR THE CAL POLY CUBESAT LABORATORY THROUGH THE DEVELOPMENT OF A PHOBOS-DEIMOS MISSION CONCEPT A Thesis presented to the Faculty of California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Science in Aerospace Engineering by Alyssa Ralph August 2020 © 2020 Alyssa M. Ralph ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii COMMITTEE MEMBERSHIP TITLE: Pathfinding Interplanetary Bus Capability for the Cal Poly CubeSat Laboratory Through the Development of a Phobos-Deimos Mission Concept AUTHOR: Alyssa M. Ralph DATE SUBMITTED: August 2020 COMMITTEE CHAIR: Pauline Faure, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Aerospace Engineering COMMITTEE MEMBER: Kira Abercromby, Ph.D. Professor of Aerospace Engineering COMMITTEE MEMBER: Amelia Greig, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering University of Texas, El Paso COMMITTEE MEMBER: Andrea Hsu, Ph.D. Senior Scientist The Aerospace Corporation iii ABSTRACT Pathfinding Interplanetary Bus Capability for the Cal Poly CubeSat Laboratory Through the Development of a Phobos-Deimos Mission Concept Alyssa M. Ralph With the rise of CubeSats and the demonstration of their many space applications, there is interest in interplanetary CubeSats to act for example as scientific investigations or communications relays. In line with the increasing demand for this class of small satellites, the Cal Poly CubeSat Lab (CPCL) seeks to develop a bus that could support an interplanetary science payload. To facilitate this, a mission concept to conduct science of the moons of Mars, Phobos and Deimos, is investigated by determining the mission needs for a CubeSat in a Phobos-Deimos cycler orbit through the development of a baseline design to meet mission objectives. This baseline design is then compared by subsystem to CPCL’s current capabilities to identify technology, facility, and knowledge gaps and recommend a path forward to close them. The resulting baseline design is a 16U bus capable of transferring from an initial low Mars orbit to a Phobos-Deimos cycler orbit using a combined chemical and electric propulsion system. The bus is designed for a 3.5 year mission lifetime collecting radiation data and images, utilizing a relay architecture to downlink payload data. Estimates for mass, volume, and power available for an additional payload are up to 2.3 kg in ~4U with power consumption up to 13 to 38 W. This baseline requires further iteration due to non-closure of the thermal protection subsystem and improvement of other subsystems but serves as a starting point for exploration into CPCL’s next steps in becoming an interplanetary bus provider. Major subsystem areas identified for hardware performance improvement within CPCL are propulsion, communications, power, and mechanisms. Keywords: Small Satellites, Planetary, Systems Engineering, Mission Architecture iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Thank you to my professors and mentors who have acted as role models throughout my undergraduate career and encouraged me to pursue a graduate education. In particular, thank you to Dr. Andrea Hsu, Dr. Kira Abercromby, and Dr. Amelia Greig for providing me opportunities to expand my engineering experience beyond the classroom, leading me to take on this endeavor and generously donating their time to help me see it through. Extra thanks to Dr. Pauline Faure for being a patient and supportive advisor through multiple setbacks and being a wealth of knowledge on the topic of systems engineering practice. Thank you to Kendra Bubert for her help and positivity over the years and to Brandon Goddard for providing me with the computational resources needed for this work. I am also grateful to my peers for the comradery and many motivational pep talks as we tackled this program together. Finally, thank you to my friends and family for checking in on me and cheering me on-- your care means the world to me. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF TABLES ….. .......................................................................................................... viii LIST OF FIGURES .................................................................................................................. x CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Problem Statement ........................................................................................................ 4 1.2 Thesis Objectives and Scope ......................................................................................... 6 2. BACKGROUND ................................................................................................................... 8 2.1 The Cal Poly CubeSat Laboratory ................................................................................. 8 2.2 CubeSats and CubeSat Specifications ........................................................................... 8 2.3 Environment Beyond Earth Orbit and Other Challenges ............................................ 10 2.3.1 Power ................................................................................................................. 11 2.3.2 Communications ................................................................................................ 11 2.3.3 Propulsion .......................................................................................................... 12 2.3.4 Thermal .............................................................................................................. 15 2.3.5 Radiation ............................................................................................................ 16 2.4 Phobos-Deimos Cycler Orbit ...................................................................................... 17 3. MISSION OBJECTIVES .................................................................................................... 20 3.1 Defining the Mission Objectives ................................................................................. 20 3.2 Stand-in Payloads ........................................................................................................ 22 3.3 Developing the Mission Concept ................................................................................ 22 4. SYSTEM OVERVIEW AND CONCEPT OF OPERATIONS .......................................... 26 4.1 Spacecraft Overview ................................................................................................... 28 4.2 Concept of Operations ................................................................................................. 26 5. PROPULSION SUBSYSTEM ........................................................................................... 32 5.1 Orbit Analysis.............................................................................................................. 32 5.2 Propulsion System Survey and Requirements ............................................................. 34 5.3 Electric Propulsion ...................................................................................................... 37 5.4 Chemical Propulsion ................................................................................................... 39 5.5 Propulsion Subsystem Summary ................................................................................. 40 5.6 Propulsion Subsystem Results in Relation to CPCL ................................................... 41 6. COMMUNICATIONS SUBSYSTEM ............................................................................... 43 6.1 Direct-to-Earth Architecture ........................................................................................ 43 6.2 Relay Architecture ....................................................................................................... 49 6.3 Communications Subsystem Results in Relation to CPCL ......................................... 56 7. POWER SUBSYSTEM ...................................................................................................... 58 7.1 Power Consumption Requirements ............................................................................. 58 7.2 Sizing the Solar Panels ................................................................................................ 62 7.3 Sizing the Batteries ...................................................................................................... 66 7.4 Power Management and Distribution System Selection ............................................. 68 7.5 Power Subsystem Summary ........................................................................................ 69 7.6 Power Subsystem Results in Relation to CPCL .......................................................... 69 8. ATTITUDE DETERMINATION AND CONTROL SYSTEM......................................... 71 8.1 Attitude Control Requirements.................................................................................... 71 8.2 Attitude Sensors .......................................................................................................... 73 8.3 Reaction Control Actuation ......................................................................................... 74 8.4 ADCS Subsystem Results in Relation to CPCL .......................................................... 80 vi 9. COMMAND AND DATA HANDLING SUBSYSTEM ................................................... 82 9.1 Memory Storage .........................................................................................................