Small Business Innovation Research/Small Business Tech Transfer
High Power CubeSat Control Sub-system (HPoCCS)
Project Description
To date, most CubeSat designs have been 6U or smaller and have operated within power budgets in the 10s of W or less. However, as the demand grows for greater CubeSat performance for all forms of research, operational, and commercial applications in upcoming years, these sensor-sats will require higher levels of power generation and power management. Low-cost access to space, fueled by the agile and ever more capable CubeSat supply, will consume a larger and larger portion of the space market in the near future for Earth and solar system targeted missions. As described in the NASA SBIR S3.03, ?Power Systems Management? solicitation, NASA is preparing for this opportunity and condition by seeking development of high power (100W) management systems that are compatible with 3U and larger volumes and that minimize impact of the on-orbit operations and orientation of the spacecraft. In response to this call, ASTRA proposes to develop a next generation, high power CubeSat-compatible electrical power sub-system (EPS) called the High Power CubeSat Control Sub-System (HPoCCS). The HPoCCS design will include consideration for both the volume and thermal compatibility that a high power management system will require in a CubeSat. It will enable > 100W peak high power generation from deployed solar panels, charging and monitoring of a 100W orbit average power (OAP) capable battery stack, conditioning and distribution of the battery bus voltage and converted voltages to the spacecraft, and thermal management of the incoming, stored, and distributed path power. The baseline HPoCCS EPS design will include a > 100W power charge and management board, a power conditioning and distribution board, modular battery boards to increase or decrease on-board storage levels, and will include both active and passive thermal control options for the power management board. The design will build on a prior ground-based EPS developed by ASTRA for the Air Force.
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Anticipated Benefits
Technology performance boundaries will be continually pressed as more and more research, operational, and commercial space-based constellations are implemented using CubeSats. In particular, high-speed space-to-earth and inter-satellite communication links, high-impulse propulsion, high-end on-board computation, active thermal control (e.g., cryo-cooling), high-slew rate attitude control, and hyper-spectral microwave and electro-optical sensors and imagers will require higher power satellite resources that furnish 100W OAP (or more) for high cadence or continuous operations. Significant advances in Earth, solar, planetary, and space physics over the next decades will originate from system-level observational techniques. The most promising approach to still be fully developed and exploited requires conducting multi-point or distributed constellation-based observations. This system-level observational approach is required to understand the ?big picture? coupling between disparate regions such as the solar-wind and earth and planetary magnetospheres, ionospheres, upper atmospheres, land, and oceans. CubeSats constellations seem to be the most likely cost-effective way to accomplish the required coverage. The completion of Phase 2 into Phase 3 will result in a CubeSat high power EPS that is robust for use in future NASA missions.
Non-NASA applications include the same list of enabling technologies as provided above for NASA applications. High speed communications will most likely be the driver for requiring higher power and motivating use of our system by commercial actors. We anticipate that these capabilities will drive interest in the high-power system in the commercial sector as well as the department of defense. The DoD will be interested in fast slew rates and cryo-cooling enabled by our high-power CubeSat system. ASTRA is involved in several commercial CubeSat ventures that would benefit from the HPoCCS development. More »
Non-NASA applications include the same list of enabling technologies as provided above for NASA applications. High speed communications will most likely be the driver for requiring higher power and motivating use of our system by commercial actors. We anticipate that these capabilities will drive interest in the high-power system in the commercial sector as well as the department of defense. The DoD will be interested in fast slew rates and cryo-cooling enabled by our high-power CubeSat system. ASTRA is involved in several commercial CubeSat ventures that would benefit from the HPoCCS development. More »
Project Library
Primary U.S. Work Locations and Key Partners
| Organizations Performing Work | Role | Type | Location |
|---|---|---|---|
| Atmospheric & Space Technology Research Associates, LLC (ASTRA) | Lead Organization | Industry | Louisville, Colorado |
Glenn Research Center
(GRC)
|
Supporting Organization | NASA Center | Cleveland, Ohio |
Primary U.S. Work Locations
-
Colorado
-
Ohio
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