Los Alamos National Security, LLC

Triad National Security, LLC

Jerry Delapp

Nicholas Dallmann

Daniel Seitz

Michael Proicou

Stephen Judd

Paul Stein

John Michel

Justin Tripp

Kevin Peter McCabe

John Martinez

Steven Storms

Adam Warniment

Donald Enemark

Joseph Palmer

James Wren

Hannah Mohr

Dean Prichard

Kimberly Katko

Donathan Ortega

Robert Wheat, Jr

An attitude determination and control system (ADCS) may include relatively large momentum wheels (i.e., reaction wheels) for improved momentum storage and magnetic torque rods that enable low power sun pointing and dissipate angular momentum imparted during deployment or by differential drag on the space vehicle. The momentum wheels, magnetic torque rods, or both may be algorithmically selected and driven to perform various maneuvers.

Attitude determination and control system (ADCS)

A compact SFS may can be deployed in small space vehicles. The SFS may have a small size, weight, and low power requirements. The hardware, software, catalogs, and calibration algorithm of the SFS provide highly accurate attitude information that can be used for pointing. For instance, accurate attitude determination may be provided that supports pointing of a deployable high gain helical antenna. A full 'lost in space' attitude solution, accurate to about an arcminute, may be accomplished in under a minute. The SFS may be fully reprogrammable on orbit, allowing continued algorithm development and deployment after launch.

Compact star-field sensor (SFS)

A space vehicle may have a modular board configuration that commonly uses some or all components and a common operating system for at least some of the boards. Each modular board may have its own dedicated processing, and processing loads may be distributed. The space vehicle may be reprogrammable, and may be launched without code that enables all functionality and/or components. Code errors may be detected and the space vehicle may be reset to a working code version to prevent system failure.

Modular space vehicle boards, control software, reprogramming, and failure recovery

A field unit and ground station may use commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components and share a common architecture, where differences in functionality are governed by software. The field units and ground stations may be easy to deploy, relatively inexpensive, and be relatively easy to operate. A novel file system may be used where datagrams of a file may be stored across multiple drives and/or devices. The datagrams may be received out of order and reassembled at the receiving device.

Space vehicle field unit and ground station system

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Los Alamos, NM, United States of America

Jerry Delapp