The development of Plug-and-play Compatibility for CubeSat Attitude Determination and Control Systems (ADACS) is proposed. Existing Maryland Aerospace (MAI) ADACS technologies are well-capable of autonomously providing complete attitude determination and control to satellites weighing up to 20kg. It is essential for these ADACS technologies to be fully compliant with a Plug-and-Play standard that allows them to integrate seamlessly into rapid spacecraft development. One solution for Plug-and-Play is the Space Plug-and-play Architecture (SPA) bus developed by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), which is currently being adopted by many spacecraft developers for its low-cost, low-power, and simple design. A program for development of the electronics and firmware is outlined to create SPA compatibility technologies for CubeSat and NanoSat ADACS. This technology is significant because not only does it extend the capability of current low cost spacecraft to tactical imaging, space environment monitoring, and other missions requiring precision fine pointing, it provides a tremendous amount of flexibility in spacecraft mission design. Future NASA spacecraft development will no longer have to expend time and energy to develop an attitude solution.
Potential NASA Commercial Applications: (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words) One of the most dynamic changes for the spacecraft industry in the past ten years is the Educational Launch of NanoSatellites (ELaNa) program that has been created by NASA. This program has allowed tens of educational spacecraft to be able to reach orbit and bring in critically needed data to scientists. During the recent CubeSat workshop, NASA announced that for the first time, there were more launch opportunities than available spacecraft. In the same presentation, they announced the next round of ELaNa launch opportunities for CubeSats. These satellites are designed to meet the standard California Polytechnic State University PPOD launcher specifications. Another major boost of excitement was the announcement that ELaNa was now going to begin accepting 6U CubeSat proposals. There is a great deal of belief that the addition of these larger 6U (10 cm * 20 cm * 30 cm) spacecraft will radically change missions that CubeSats can perform. These new missions are the cornerstone of educational institutions being able to perform much of the needed research for current and future NASA missions. The way to truly advance this activity is to provide satellite technologies that can be easily integrated into different satellites in a truly Plug-and-Play fashion. SPA-compatible attitude determination and control solutions will put NASA well on its way in fulfilling its commitment to space exploration.
Potential NON-NASA Commercial Applications: (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words) Many satellite subsystem providers are looking for components that allow the buyer to rapidly assemble a spacecraft to carry a payload. The recent trends in spacecraft development are towards components that are low-cost, low-power, and also ones that require the least amount of work in communications interfacing. As a technology that meets all of these needs, the Space-Plug-and-play Architecture (SPA) is the future. MAI ADACS technologies are distributed all across the world by MAI partners, some of which include ISIS, ATI-Space, Pumpkin Inc., and others. It is highly likely that most of these subsystem providers will soon gravitate towards SPA as the communications interface protocol of their choice. Spacecraft developers who are interested in reducing development and interfacing time by orders of magnitude will therefore benefit immensely from ADACS technologies.
Technology Taxonomy Mapping: (NASA's technology taxonomy has been developed by the SBIR-STTR program to disseminate awareness of proposed and awarded R/R&D in the agency. It is a listing of over 100 technologies, sorted into broad categories, of interest to NASA.) Avionics (see also Control and Monitoring) Navigation & Guidance Spacecraft Design, Construction, Testing, & Performance (see also Engineering; Testing & Evaluation)
