Mitigating CubeSat Confusion: results of in-flight technical demonstrations of candidate tracking and identification technologies
- Paper number
IAC-21,A6,7,5,x63326
- Author
Dr. Mark A. Skinner, United States, The Aerospace Corporation
- Coauthor
Mr. Michael Coletti, United States, Spaceflight Inc.
- Coauthor
Mr. Matthew Voss, United States, NearSpace Launch Inc.
- Coauthor
Dr. Tomas Svitek, United States, Stellar Exploration Inc
- Coauthor
Mr. John Lee, United States, Space Domain Awareness, Inc.
- Coauthor
Ms. Kerstyn Auman, United States, The Aerospace Corporation
- Coauthor
Mr. Hemanshu Patel, United States, The Aerospace Corporation
- Coauthor
Mr. Eamonn Moyer, United States, The Aerospace Corporation
- Year
2021
- Abstract
CubeSats and nanosats offer affordable access to space. Their standardized size and shape have allowed a CubeSat industrial ecosystem to flourish, which has lowered costs for acquisition and launch, and vastly shortened development times. This has enabled access to space for many nontraditional actors in the space arena. What previously might have taken years to develop can now be accomplished in months, and for significantly less money. This has allowed educational institutions to fly their own CubeSats. It has also allowed numerous developing countries their first satellite. It has allowed more traditional aerospace companies and government agencies very rapid cycle times for research and development efforts. However, when scores of CubeSats are launched en masse, many cannot be immediately identified, some not even after months, if ever. This inability to identify the launched CubeSats from their cohort is what gives rise to “CubeSat confusion”. There are many factors to mitigate this issue, but chief among them would be the ability of a CubeSat owner/operator to independently identify their CubeSat, perhaps using one of various specialized techniques or technologies to aid in this regard. One of the major launch consolidators, Spaceflight Inc., has announced the opportunity for identification and tracking technology providers to fly candidate devices aboard their Sherpa dispenser vehicle as hosted payloads, allowing on-orbit technical demonstration and raising the technology readiness level for the devices. We report the results of several technical demonstrations, their potential utility to the CubeSat community, and future plans. The demonstrations will be of interest to both CubeSat/nanosat owner/operators, as well as Space Traffic Management government regulators.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-21,A6,7,5,x63326.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).
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