Summary

Description

<p>The key challenge for reducing a traditional satellite to such a small size is to remove the maximum possible functionality that is not critical for creating a working spacecraft. This includes moving as much functionality as possible from the sensor node to a host system (e.g. mothership or ground station). This process is extremely critical of functions that consume mass, power, or volume such as attitude controllers, sophisticated sensing systems, and redundancy.</p><p>Previous methods for separating special from temporal evolution include formations of a few large spacecraft. MMS and STEREO are examples. These prior missions have the drawback of being very expensive and being limited to only a few spatial measurements at a time.</p><p>The purpose of this effort is to develop a concept for how to construct a spacecraft platform that will enable sensing systems to be reduced in size to a very small (~50cm<sup>3</sup>), wireless package that can be utilized in distributed space sensing systems, particularly for in-situ measurements. The innovations that were explored include energy harvesting and management, GPS tracking, electronic integration and mechanical packaging.</p>