Paper Category: Research
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Decentralized Operational Framework for Autonomous Space Traffic Management in High-Drag VLEO Environments
The rapid expansion of Very Low Earth Orbit (VLEO) constellations introduces significant complexities in orbital maintenance due to non-conservative forces, primarily stochastic atmospheric drag. Traditional centralized Space Traffic Management (STM) architectures, which rely on batch-processed updates and human-in-the-loop decision making, are increasingly incapable of managing the high-frequency station-keeping maneuvers required in these altitudes. This paper…
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Evaluation of Heterogeneous Data Fusion for Real-Time Agricultural Stress Monitoring in Small-Scale Farming Ecosystems
Smallholder agricultural systems represent a critical frontier for climate resilience strategies, yet they are often underserved by traditional remote sensing frameworks due to fragmented land parcels and low-frequency reporting. This research investigates an autonomous geospatial framework designed to synthesize multi-source satellite data, specifically Sentinel-2 MSI optical imagery and CHIRPS precipitation datasets, to detect and characterize…
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MediSat: A Secure Delay-Tolerant CubeSat Constellation for Medical Data Relay in Infrastructure-Degraded Environments
Reliable transmission of medical data during disasters and in remote regions remains a critical challenge due to damaged, congested, or nonexistent terrestrial communication infrastructure. This paper presents MediSat, a SmallSat-based system concept for secure, delay-tolerant relay of medical data using a constellation of CubeSats operating in low Earth orbit. The proposed architecture employs a store-and-forward…
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Characterising Space Weather Risks for LEO SmallSats Using the ESA Space Weather Service Network.
SmallSat missions in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) operate in an environment that can change rapidly in response to space weather. Limited design margins, growing levels of autonomy, and the increasing number of satellites in orbit make it essential for operators to understand and anticipate space weather–driven risks. This paper focuses on three operationally significant categories:…
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Quantum Key Distribution for Secure LEO Satellite Constellations: A Scalable Protocol and Deployment Model
As global reliance on satellite communication networks intensifies, securing data links in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) becomes critical. Quantum Key Distribution (QKD), particularly the BB84 protocol, offers provably secure encryption through the transmission of quantum states. However, practical deployment at constellation scale poses challenges, including limited pass durations over ground stations, atmospheric attenuation, and the…
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Passive Spin-Stabilised Solar Sailing for CubeSat Heliocentric Escape
Project Svarog is a student-led initiative at Imperial College London aiming to reach the heliopause using a CubeSat-class spin-stabilised solar-sail demonstrator. Small spacecraft are increasingly being considered for missions to extreme heliocentric distances, including NASA’s Solar Gravitational Lens concept at a starting 550 AU focal line. Recent missions have also highlighted the difficulty of maintaining…
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Enabling Secure Maritime Connectivity: MAIV of the MICE-1 CubeSat Mission
The increasing reliance of Maritime IoT and Internet of Vessels (IoV) applications on satellite connectivity places stringent requirements not only on system architecture and communications performance, but also on the robustness, manufacturability, and verification of spaceborne platforms operating in demanding environments. In this context, nanosatellite missions targeting maritime services must balance tight mass, volume, and…
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Component-Level Polymer Composite Spot Shielding for Radiation and Thermal Management in SmallSats
The increasing use of commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) electronics in SmallSat platforms offers significant advantages in cost, performance, and development speed; however, radiation tolerance and thermal constraints often force conservative spacecraft-level shielding strategies. Bulk aluminum enclosures introduce substantial size, weight, and power (SWaP) penalties and frequently require entire subsystems to be over-shielded based on the most radiation-sensitive…
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A 37.5 to 42.5 GHz Broadband SiGe Analog Linearizer RFIC for Q- Band Satellite Power Amplifier Linearization
This work presents a compact broadband analog linearizer RF integrated circuit (LRFIC) for Q band satellite payloads, designed in IHP 130 nm SiGe BiCMOS technology and covering 37.5–42.5 GHz. The proposed LRFIC realizes a split path predistortion architecture: a linear branch (LB) forwards and amplifies the carrier with minimal distortion using a tunable true time…