UMBCNASA CloudCubeSat

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UMBC-NASA Cloud-CubeSat
PI J. Vanderlei Martins, Department of Physics,
UMBC Project/Instrument Manager Leroy Sparr
(NASA GSFC) Student Project Manager Steven
Buczkowski, Phys. UMBC Co-PI Weidong Zhu, Mech.
Eng. UMBC Senior Personnel A. Correia (ORAU,
NASA GSFC), R. Fernandez-Borda (UMBC, NASA
GSFC), Dominik Cieslak (UMBC/JCET) Current
undergraduate students James Gerity
(UMBC/Physics), Tyler Schmitz (UMBC/Physics),
plus 8 students from Olin College Collaborators
Juan Roman (NASA GSFC), Steven Holt (Olin
Engineering College), Lorraine Remer (NASA GSFC),
A. Marshak (NASA GSFC), Keith Gendreau (NASA
GSFC), Raymond Hoff (JCET/GEST, UMBC), Joel
Simpson (NASA GSFC-Wallops)
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Cloud CubeSatMega Science with a Pico Satellite
The Interaction between Aerosols and Clouds
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40-70o
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Cloud-CubeSat Science A Methodology to Observe
Freezing in clouds x Aerosol Content
J. Vanderlei Martins1, Alexander Marshak2, Tobias
Zinner3, Lorraine Remer2 1- UMBC 2- NASA GSFC
3- DLR
Marshak et al. 2006, ACP Martins et al. 2007,
ACPD Zinner et al. 2008, ACPD
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Just buy a Satellite Kit!!!
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Alternative Design with Attitude and
Determination Control System (no TIR)
NIR easylink
VIS Camera
NIRVIS electronics
Computer Radio modem
Power EPSBattery
Solar Panel
Solar Panel
ADCS
NIR Camera
Interface board for cameras (2nd computer with
memory)
Cooling Radiator
ADCS Control board And Magnetometer
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Proposed Student Projects

• Low friction testing hardware for CubeSat
  attitude control
• HelmHoltz cage Solar simulator
• Build and implement a reaction wheel
• Build an automatic balancing system
• Integrate and control the Pumpkin onboard with
  our CCD camera.

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1- Frictionless ACDS Testing Hardware for CubeSat
Our current setup
Design/Build a low friction testing hardware for
CubeSat Atitude control (we are currently
thinking about an air cushion system with a
transparent sphere holding our CubeSat prototype
at the center of gravity. This system will allow
for a comprehensive testing of our attitude
control system.
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Our Current CubeSat and Magnetorquer Model
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Alternative configuration
Spacecraft C.M.
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Our favorite configuration
Sphere can freely move 360 degs to any direction
Frictionless air cushion
Compressed air
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2- Earths Magnetic field and Sun Simulators

• HelmHoltz cage Solar simulator this will be a
  magnetic system to simulate variations in Earth's
  magnetic field and solar position along the
  orbit. Combined with item 1 above we will be able
  to perform full simulations of our attitude
  control and determination system.

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Sphere can freely move 360 degs to any direction
Our favorite configuration
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CubeSat Delphi-3 Helmholtz Cage for testing a
passive Magnetic Control system
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3- Reaction Wheel Prototype for Cloud CubeSat

• Establish needed torque for inertial pointing
  system
• Need control on speed of the wheel in order to
  assure the right momentum
• Magnetorquers will be used for additional
  pointing.

Build reaction wheel simulator - our latest
concept include one reaction wheel aligned with
the sun vector, which should point to the
opposite direction to our cloud camera. We hope
to have this reaction wheel at constant speed all
the time. Magnetorquers will be used to
complement the effect of this reaction wheel.
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Orbit Geometry
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Orbit Geometry
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Cloud CubeSat Baseline Reaction wheels from
Sinclair Interplanetary
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4- Remote Control Balancing System for Cloud
CubeSat
Build an automatic balancing system  for the
prototype bus Since we need to carefully adjust
our center of gravity, we plan to have a dynamic
system (with actuators) that can make sure our
prototype is perfectly aligned. Because this is
hard to do manually, we intend to have these
precision actuators that can balance the system
automatically.
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Linear Actuators for Balancing
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5- Integrate and run a CCD camera from the Cloud
CubeSat onboard computer
Integrate and control the CubeSat onboard
computer with our camera - we are buying the bus,
onboard computer, and communication systems. We
would like a student to integrate these systems
and look at several topics from your list,
regarding data handling, compression, etc.
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Go Cloud Cubesat!!!
Thanks.
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