STARFORM - Autonomous Robotic Satellite

STARFORM, Space-born Technologies for Autonomous Robotic Formation and Orbital Manufacturing, was developed as part of my senior capstone projects for my undergraduate Aerospace degree. The goal of STARFORM was to design and develop a modular, robotic, autonomous satellite the could modify, repair, or relocate existing satellites, specifically in low Earth orbit (LEO). Typically, satellites within this orbital regime are deorbited or placed in graveyard orbits to due to various spacecraft component malfunctions. Should a newly operational satellite experience component failure, premature abandonment of this satellite could occur, resulting in a loss of the mission and money for the company and investors.

The STARFORM satellite was designed to be a fully modular, robotic, and autonomous to reduce risk and need for on-orbit Extravehicular activity (EVA) to repair broken satellites in LEO and will be comprised of the following components:

• 12U CubeSat Frame (226mm x 226mm x 366mm)

• Solar panels for 78W power generation

  • 2U deployable panels (2x)

  • Rigid mount panels covering frame (5x)

• 2 Robotic arms (12.7mm x 12.7mm x 824.23mm)

• 2 Field-emission electric propulsion units (2 km/s velocity)

• PC104 Avionics form factor

• 150 Mbps transmission rate

Target Satellite

STARFORM was designed to service a variety of spacecraft in various LEO orbital profiles. For this project, a hypothetical repair mission to a satellite in LEO was explored. Operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere, and Climate (COSMIC-2) collects atmospheric data for weather forecasting.

Mission Concept of Operations

In general, a rough mission concept of operations (Con Ops) was designed to highlight general mission milestones and checkpoints the satellite would follow in an actual, operational mission.

• Launch from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on a SpaceX Falcon 9 to 28.5° inclination

• Deploy solar panels to begin battery charging and perform initial health checkouts

• Conduct orbital plane change maneuver from 28.5° to 24°

• Perform health checkouts and begin robotic arm deployment sequence

• Perform rendezvous and docking sequence

• Repair COSMIC-2

• Undock and de-orbit

STARFORM Overview

• Total weight:

  • 12.4 kg wet

  • 11.96 kg dry

• 2 Enpulsion Nano R3 propulsion units

  • 5000 N-s total impulse

• Custom titanium and aluminum robotic arms

  • 7 degrees of freedom

  • 76.8 cm fully extended

  • 31.6cm x 5.5cm collapsed footprint

• Avionics

  • PC104 form factor

  • 84 Wh battery pack

  • X and S ban communication with 125Kbps and 150 Mbps rates

  • 12.8w idle and 57.8w max power consumption

Personal Contribution

Within this project, I served as project manager and lead avionics engineer. As project manager, I was responsible for managing the teams progress, and ensure design and development of the satellite remained on track so that required technical deliverables could be produced. Furthermore, as project manager, I helped with engineering design and analysis across all sub teams within the project, from structures and propulsion to robotic arm design and mission safety analysis. I helped to produce weekly reports which were presented to my fellow peers, as well as developing and presenting PDR and CDR reports.

As lead avionics engineer, I completed research into satellite and CubeSat avionic systems. I performed work researching flight computer systems, energy storage solutions, power production, thermal management, attitude determination and control systems (ADCS), and communication systems. I performed power generation and consumption analysis to properly size batteries and determine the necessary solar panel configuration. Furthermore, I conducted simulations to determine the effectiveness of the ADCS, as well as performing thermal simulations of the satellite in-orbit.