Project Overview of the Naval Postgraduate School Spacecraft Architecture and Technology Demonstration Experiment

摘要

The Naval Postgraduate School's current attempt at getting another spacecraft into orbit is focusing on Naval Postgraduate School Spacecraft Architecture and Technology Demonstration Experiment (NPSAT1) Building on lessons learned from PANSAT, in addition to targeting incremental improvements and advances in multiple areas of spacecraft design, NPSAT1 is being built as a three-axis stabilized platform. It will be using commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) components in many of its subsystems to provide some testing and experimentation on how certain COTS components can handle space environments and the challenges this unique environment presents. Other characteristics of NPSAT1 include a PC- compatible Command and Data Handling (C&DH) subsystem, lithium-ion polymer batteries, a Linux operating system, and Ferroelectric RAM. NPS possesses a unique ability to educate a large number of service personnel in a wide variety of space-related topics. In particular, NPS is not only able to provide classroom and laboratory education on principles, concepts, philosophies, and historical perspectives of space, but also it can provide the student the opportunity to conduct on-orbit operations and testing of the same spacecraft that were designed and built on the grounds of the NPS campus. This thesis describes the overall NPSAT1 design project, including descriptions of the five experiments onboard, and many of the associated requirements that ultimately lead to a successful mission on orbit.