Related papers: Building Small-Satellites to Live Through the Kess…
The recent explosive growth of small satellite operations driven primarily from an academic or pedagogical need, has demonstrated the viability of commercial-off-the-shelf technologies in space. They have also leveraged and shown the need…
Recently, it has been discovered that at least 1% of Kuiper Belt Objects (KBOs) are accompanied by large satellites. Here we examine the energetics of KBO satellite formation via collisions, finding collisions require a dynamically excited…
Satellites in Geostationary Orbit (GEO) provide a number of commercial, government, and military services around the world, offering everything from surveillance and monitoring to video calls and internet access. However a dramatic lowering…
Space systems miniaturization has been increasingly popular for the past decades, with over 1600 CubeSats and 300 sub-CubeSat sized spacecraft estimated to have been launched since 1998. This trend towards decreasing size enables the…
The growing number of noncooperative flying objects has prompted interest in sample-return and space debris removal missions. Current solutions are both costly and largely dependent on specific object identification and capture methods. In…
During the New Space era small countries are becoming important players in the space business. While space activities are rapidly increasing globally, it is important to make operations in a sustainable and safe way in order to preserve…
In orbit, we find a harsh environment able to damage even space-qualified components. The main threats will be listed in the following lines, one by one, also presenting some of the effects on commercial electronics. According to the…
Recent years have seen a rapid increase in the number of CubeSats and other small satellites in orbit - these have highly constrained computational and communication resources, but still require robust secure communication to operate…
Over 34,000 objects bigger than 10 cm in length are known to orbit Earth. Among them, only a small percentage are active satellites, while the rest of the population is made of dead satellites, rocket bodies, and debris that pose a…
CubeSats and small satellites are emerging as low-cost tools for performing science and exploration in deep space. These new classes of satellite exploit the latest advancement in miniaturization of electronics, power systems, and…
The rapid launch of hundreds of thousands of satellites into Low Earth Orbit will significantly alter our view of the sky and raise concerns about the sustainability of Earth's orbital space. A new framework for sustainable space…
We present a new space mission concept that is capable of finding, detecting, and tracking 90% of near-Earth objects (NEO) with H magnitude of $\rm H\leq22$ (i.e., $\sim$140 m in size) that are potentially hazardous to the Earth. The new…
The number of space objects will grow several times in a few years due to the planned launches of constellations of thousands microsatellites. It leads to a significant increase in the threat of satellite collisions. Spacecraft must…
Aerodynamic collision avoidance manoeuvres provide an opportunity for satellites in Low Earth Orbits to reduce the risk during close encounters. With rising numbers of satellites and objects in orbit, satellites experience close encounters…
Spacecraft collision avoidance procedures have become an essential part of satellite operations. Complex and constantly updated estimates of the collision risk between orbiting objects inform the various operators who can then plan risk…
There is growing demand for satellite swarms and constellations for global positioning, remote sensing and relay communication in higher LEO orbits. This will result in many obsolete, damaged and abandoned satellites that will remain…
The number of small satellites has grown dramatically in the past decade from tens of satellites per year in the mid-2010s to a projection of tens of thousands in orbit by the mid-2020s. This presents both problems and opportunities for…
The increasing velocity and frequency of space missions necessitate advancements in spacecraft protection technologies to ensure mission success and the safety of onboard systems and personnel. Existing shielding solutions, including…
The Kepler spacecraft is currently unable to hold a steady pointing and it is slowly drifting during observations. We believe that if one has to deal with targets that drift across the CCDs, one should at least be able to track the targets…
Space debris and inactive satellites pose a threat to the safety and integrity of operational spacecraft and motivate the need for space situational awareness techniques. These uncooperative targets create a challenging tracking and…