Year: 2015
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: This paper reports on the Space Environmental NanoSatellite Experiment (SENSE), its successes and failures, and lessons learned that can be applied to future nanosat missions. SENSE was a pathfinder mission to show that CubeSats could be designed and acquired to perform Air Force missions while satisfying the existing requirements and regulations for mission certification and launch. On November 19, 2013 the two 3U SENSE CubeSats were launched into low earth orbit as part of the ORS-3 Enabler mission. Several major problems were encountered in the initial operation and activation of the satellites. These problems were mitigated to some extent, although the intended mission capability was not fully achieved. One SENSE vehicle has exceeded its one-year design life on-orbit. SENSE developed a ground architecture that was able to successfully demonstrate autonomous operation of a ground antenna network in Unified S-Band frequencies at a data rate of 1 Mbps, operating within Air Force cybersecurity requirements. A SENSE satellite has also provided a test platform for experimentation with cloud-based and disaggregated satellite ground architectures.
Authors: Lyle Abramowitz, Capt. John Avrett
Language: English
Subfield: Aerospace Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1154717400