Page 1 Interplanetary Hitchhiking To Support Small Spacecraft Missions Beyond Earth Orbit Donovan Torgerson 1, Anders Nervold 2, Jeremy Straub 1, Josh Berk 3, Ronald Marsh 1 and Scott Kerlin 1 1 Department of Computer Science, 2 Department of Entrepreneurship, 3 Department of Space Studies University of North Dakota

Page 2 Overview: Introduction OpenOrbiter Spacecraft & OPEN Framework Spacecraft Operations Prospective Interplanetary Mission Analysis and Discussion Conclusions Questions

Page 3 Introduction : Development of small spacecraft in educational institutions has traditionally been hampered by the high costs/complexities of launches NASA’s ELaNa program kick started the concept of hitchhiking for free on a rocket launch to low-earth or geostationary orbit ELaNa launches are typically provided by grouping multiple nanosatellites together in a rocket already carrying a larger/more expensive payload ELaNa promotes research/education and gives real world experience in spacecraft design/development

Page 4 Introduction : CubeSats have been utilized for missions in low-Earth and geostationary orbits and have provided scientific They have not yet been used beyond those orbits Tremendous value to society by adequately preparing students for demanding jobs in fields that support and develop these missions Recent changes to the CubeSat standard have already paved the way for deep space missions by incorporating propulsion system design and safety requirements

Page 5 OpenOrbiter Spacecraft/OPEN Framework: The Open Prototype for Educational NanoSats (OPEN) is an initiative launched as a public service to the nation and the world OPEN team is working to create a design, set of implementation instructions and a testing plan for a 1-U CubeSat (but will support a 2-U or 3-U CubeSat with limited modifications) Publically available to facilitate the low-cost CubeSat programs at other institutions Target of the designs is to allow fabrication with a parts budget of approximately USD$5,000

Page 6 OpenOrbiter Spacecraft/OPEN Framework: Allows programs to focus on maximizing student learning and allow for greater student leadership opportunities (as the goal of the funding is educational) OPEN is not intended to compete with commercial vendors Provides publically-available design documents and lends itself to use by those that wish to modify subsystems for other purposes The OpenOrbiter initiative is a student-directed, student- run program working to develop/implement a spacecraft based upon OPEN

Page 7 Spacecraft Operations: Cost impairs the development of small spacecraft A ready made small satellite kit can cost USD$150,000 to get into orbit A conglomeration of multiple institutions is one way to reduce costs Technological capabilities of each institution are key factors here Availability of numerous ground stations Bandwidth constraints are reduced and it facilitates data sharing

Page 8 Spacecraft Operations: May allow several projects to use the same data for achieving common or synergistic goals Sharing a single spacecraft makes scheduling/conflict resolution important Ways of handling this: first in, first out job scheduling, task prioritization determined by the location and path of the craft, or providing time on pro-rata basis to each institution. This system allows each participating institution to send/receive data and tasks to the spacecraft from any participating ground station

Page 9 Spacecraft Operations: System resources are managed onboard All data collected/manipulated is stored in the cloud Allows the ability to send information to the ground in segments

Page 10 Prospective Interplanetary Mission: Two approaches for using OPEN design A 6-U variant of the OPEN design Utilizes the OPEN subsystems and structural configuration in a conjoined configuration. Use of 1-U, 2-U and 3-U OPEN-derived CubeSats as part of a ‘hitchhiker’ style mission

Page 11 Analysis and Discussion: Feasibility of a deep space hitchhiking program (such as ELaNA) would serve to benefit not only educational institutions but the world as a whole Example On top of the 3 satellites currently orbiting Mars, this program would enable a multitude of cheaper specialized satellites to conduct further research to be performed simutaneously This could then be mirrored for other planets as well as meteors and asteroids

Page 12 Conculsion: Success of CubeSat missions in Earth-Orbit OPEN program discussed herein Next phase of affordable educational opportunities needs consideration Deep space travel is going to necissitate the transition/expansion of ELaNA (and similar programs) to further the benefits seen by Nanosatellites

Page 13 Thanks for Your Attention. Any Questions? Presentation of this paper at the 2013 International Astronautical Congress was supported by an Advanced Undergraduate Research Award (AURA) from North Dakota EPSCoR (NSF # EPS ) and the UND Intercollegiate Academic Fund, administered by the Office of the Provost. Small satellite development work at the University of North Dakota is or has been supported by the North Dakota Space Grant Consortium, North Dakota NASA EPSCoR, the University of North Dakota Faculty Research Seed Money Committee, North Dakota EPSCoR (NSF Grant # EPS ), the Department of Computer Science, the John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The participation of numerous students and faculty spanning multiple UND departments in the small satellite program is gratefully acknowledged. Corporate sponsors, including GitHub Inc. who currently provides their GitHub service to the OpenOrbiter project at no charge, are also greatly appreciated. The work of Anders Nervold in arranging and configuring RedMine is gratefully acknowledged. RedMine is provided to the OpenOrbiter project by Trollweb A/S (Norway) who installed and host this software at no charge to the project. The work of Elliot Dahl on the OpenOrbiter.com website (which the GitHub files and content will eventually be made accessible via) is also acknowledged.