Paper Category: Scientific Payloads
-
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…
-
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…
-
CROMIS – The case for an orbital H-alpha solar telescope
Monitoring of the Sun and space weather is becoming increasingly important, with applications ranging from satellite and astronaut safety to GNSS reliability and power grid operations. The chromosphere, a complex and dynamic layer of the Sun’s atmosphere best visible in the H-alpha spectral line, holds significant information for resolving open questions like coronal heating and…
-
Cubesats for Earthquake Detection and Disaster Avoidance
Earthquakes are an essential and unavoidable geological event that have been continuing since the formation of Earth and they are nature’s way of reshaping our world. Unfortunately, they are also very devastating when they happen near cities and settlements. Especially near fault lines, earthquakes can cause extensive damage. Moreover, when there is an earthquake that…
-
Towards an open source, systems-level mission planning and analysis tool
The traditional systems engineering workflow requires synthesis of subsystem design information into technical budgets, performance simulations, and other metrics of mission credibility and value. Projects often use a diverse mixture of spreadsheet calculators and custom and commercial simulation software to draw mission-level conclusions from subsystem-level design information and requirements. This approach suffers from two inefficiencies.…
-
Low SWaP Flight Board for High-Speed On-Board Data Handling, Processing and AI Inference
The continuous increase in payload data volume and mission autonomy requirements is driving the need for increasingly advanced on-board data handling and processing technologies in satellite systems. In particular, next-generation Earth observation, telecommunications, and distributed space architectures require high-performance processing capabilities to enable real-time data reduction, intelligent decision-making, and efficient use of downlink resources. Within…
-
Perovskite Solar Cells: In-Orbit Assessment
The increasing demand for long-duration and cost-efficient small satellite missions is driving the need for power technologies beyond conventional silicon photovoltaics. Perovskite Solar Cells (PSCs) offer high specific power and mechanical flexibility. Notably, recent terrestrial studies on PSCs have demonstrated promising self-healing properties under controlled bias. However, their behaviour under space conditions remains largely unverified.…