The Hawaii Space Flight Lab and the LEONIDAS Project

Luke Flynn, Director HSFLWayne Shiroma, Co-Director HSFL

Lloyd French, Program Manager HSFLSchool of Ocean & Earth Science & Technology and

College of EngineeringUniversity of Hawaii at Manoa

NSF Workshop on Small Satellite Missions for Space Weather and Atmospheric Research

May 15, 2007

HSFL Objectives

• Development of a reliable, low-cost, rapid-response launch system capable of providing 1 – 3 year science and technological research missions in low-Earth orbit.• Development of a training activity to create a skilled technical workforce for future space missions.• End-to-end small satellite development, integration, launch, communications and telemetry management.• Sustainable satellite integration and launch activity through Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF)/UH partnership.• Validation of space-borne hardware and software.• 1st mission in FY09, 2nd mission in FY10. Sustained rate of at least 1 mission per year. • Missions designated as Science and Technology for the University (STU).

Hawaii Space Flight Lab• Collaborative program between the University of

Hawaii’s School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) and College of Engineering (CoE).

• Connections through the Hawaii Space Grant Consortium since 2001.– CoE provides small satellite engineering experience

• National Electrical Engineering Undergraduate Students of the year in 2001, 2003 and 2005.

• Engineering faculty specializing in nano- and micro-sat design.

– SOEST provides instrumentation design and science applications

• Faculty with instrument building experience.• Faculty investigators on many NASA missions.

– HSGC provides NASA support • Network of 52 space grant consortia in each State as well as

District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.• Grant funds for undergraduate and graduate fellowships.• Connections to NASA Centers and NASA HQ through Office of

Education.

Hawaii Space Flight Lab Org Chart

SpacecraftCoE, Industry

HSFLDirector

NASA/Hawaii Space Grant

NASA, DoD, UniversityProgram Offices

HSFL ManagementTeam

Integration & TestCoE

InstrumentHIGP, CoE,

Industry

Mission OperationsHIGP, CoE

Ground StationsHIGP

DataManagement

HIGP, Data Center

LaunchUH, PMRF, KTF

Project MissionsCoE

HSFL AdministrationHIGP

External Partners

Partnership Chart (Support Roles)• Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF)

– Local launch facility and mission support elements– Workforce needs– Environmental restrictions govern sizes of potential launch

vehicles• Kauai Test Facility (KTF)/ Sandia National Lab

– Heritage with solid rockets and missile design– Heritage working with PMRF as on-site contractor– Heritage with successful sub-orbital launches– Will provide training for technical transfer to University of Hawaii

• NASA Centers (Ames and JPL)– NASA Ames Director S. Pete Worden signed an MOU with the

Governor of Hawaii on March 8, 2007 to explore collaborative research options.

• Plans to collaborate on spacecraft and payload development for STU-2

– JPL/Ames providing technical support and a software experiment on the STU-1 UH microsatellite

How Will We Do This?

S/C SystemsAvionicsPowerTelecomThermalS/WH/W

•UH/HSFL maintains receiving stations that will be moved to roof of POST in 2007.•Ground station provides command and control broadcast as well as data downlink capabilities.•Mission Ops Center on POST 5th floor under development with UH support.

Ground Station & Mission OperationsLaunch Vehicle and Launch Support

• Pacific Missile Range Facility (PMRF)•Local launch facility and mission support •Use existing launcher within PMRF boundaries• Kauai Test Facility (KTF)/ Sandia National Lab•Experience with solid rockets and missile design. Use SuperStrypi rocket.•Can send 300 kg to low-Earth orbit (400 km) or 225 kg to mid-orbit (700 km) missions.•Heritage working with PMRF as on-site contractor•Over 1500 successful suborbital launches•Will provide technical training to University of Hawaii

Integration and Test• Clean rooms in UH/POST will be used to assemble satellites.

–Systems integration–Thermo-vac testing–Vibration testing–Launch vehicle component integration

Spacecraft

•Draw from cadre of EE and ME students in CoE CubeSat Small Satellite Group.

• Partner with industry, NASA Centers (Ames and JPL), and others to advance small spacecraft design and capabilities.•Design, build, launch, and operate 40-kg small satellite that can be configured for a variety of science and educational tasks.•Support technology validation missions for government agencies (NASA, DoD), as well as other University or corporate missions.

Instruments•The HSFL can call on a diverse group of instrument-developing faculty from HIGP and SOEST.

•A number of businesses in Hawaii also develop a wide array of instrumentation. The HSFL will partner with these organizations to provide technology demonstration opportunities.

•NASA Centers (Ames and JPL) are interested in joint technology missions.

PMRF – UH Telemetry Plan for LEONIDAS (STU – 1)

• Mission Operations Plan– PMRF handles telemetry for first week of

operations. UHF uplink, S-band downlink– “Hand-off” and coincident data collection occurs in

2nd mission week.– UH MOC handles operations after 2nd week.

• Mission Data Plan– During 1st two weeks, data feed from Makaha

Ridge provided to UH MOC through PMRF– Data archived for UH MOC on DVD-ROM

• Matched systems allow for emergency PMRF back-up in case of UH MOC failure.

LEONIDAS Project

• LEONIDAS: Low Earth Orbit Nanosat-Integrated Defense Autonomous System

• Original plan included chain of satellites to pass information to a single ground station and observe target area.

• Satellite chain would be used for surveillance and disaster relief efforts.

• Small satellite networks can be more robust than single larger satellites because nodes can become inoperable but mission can still be accomplished.

HSFL First Project: LEONIDAS

• LEONIDAS starts with $4.0 Million in funding in FY 07.

• LEONIDAS project costs cover two launches and two spacecraft. Partial cost-matches by NASA, University of Hawaii, and the State of Hawaii.

• Spacecraft would leverage less-expensive, already-developed, Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS) systems. Stable platform for remote sensing applications in 40-kg class.

• Develop plug-and-play architecture for multiple payload configurations. Satellite is low-cost platform for flight validation of advanced technologies.

• NASA JPL/Ames vehicle health and autonomous spacecraft software experiment on first mission.

• LEONIDAS Missions #1 and #2 designated as Science and Technology for the University (STU) #1 and #2.

• Basic Mission Parameters for LEONIDAS-1 and –2 (STU-1 and –2):

• Mission Objectives: Remote Sensing

• Payload Mass: 150 kg

• Orbit: 400 km retrograde (1 – 3 year mission)

Future and Benefits• The HSFL will provide a gateway for university-class and small

satellite space access. Potential to relieve log-jam of national small satellite projects waiting for space validation of hardware.

• UH to provide student training opportunities from spacecraft design to launch to on-orbit operations.

• Reliable, low-cost access to Earth orbit for small payloads. – Total recurring cost is ~ $9.0 million/launch; this cost can be

subdivided between multiple payloads.– Design payload adapter to reduce costs for nanosat

deployments.• Workforce development and training of the future space industry.

Links through NASA Space Grant provide contacts to every State.

• More about the HSFL:

• Justin Akagi Poster – UH CubeSat Group

• Lloyd French Poster – HSFL Organization and ObjectivesLEONIDAS Mentor and Team Members