NASA Internship
6/11/2006 to 8/19/2006
A Final Report
Alaa Eldin A. Aly
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Introduction …………………………………………………….....................
2. Mission Overview ………………………………………………....................
2.1 Task Assignments …………………………………………………….
3. System Concept of Operations (ConOps) ……………………………………
4. Activities and Accomplishments ……………………………….....................
4.1 Technical Work ………………………………………………………
4.1.1 Individual Work …………………………………………………....
4.1.2 Collaborative Work ……………………………………………....
4.1.3 Auxiliary Work ……………………………………………………
4.2 Academic Activities ………………………………………………….
4.2.1 Spacecraft Design Class …………………………………………
4.2.2 Concentrated Spacecraft Design Lectures ……………………..
4.2.3 Technical Lectures on CubeSat Development ………………...
4.2.4 One-Day Workshop on MSP430 Microcontroller and Salvo
Operating systems ……………………………………………….
4.3 Field Visits/Demos …………………………………………………...
4.3.1 California Polytechnic State University ……………………….
4.3.2 Stanford University Dish-Sites ………………………………….
4.3.3 The Space and Systems Development Laboratory (SSDL) ….
4.3.4 SSDL Demos ………………………………………………………
4.4 Documentation Tools ………………………………………………...
4.4.1 Presentations ………………………………………………………
4.4.2 WIKI ………………………………………………………………..
4.4.3 CVS …………………………………………………………………
5. Appendix ……………………………………………………….....................
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1. Introduction
This report summarizes the activities and the accomplishments that have been
achieved during a summer internship in NASA-Ames.
2. Mission Overview
An overview of the internship is shown as follows:
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When: 6/11/2006-8/19/2006
Where: NASA-Ames, Mountain View CA and Stanford University Stanford
CA.
Who: Seven students and two faculty members from five universities in the
state of Kentucky.
Organization Kentucky Science & Technology Corporation (KSTC)
Goal: To design and manufacture the Kentucky Satellite (KySat) as the first
educational Pico satellite (CubeSat, Fig. 1) launched and operated by
the state of Kentucky. The specific goal of this internship is to design
the main infra structure of the satellite and go as far as possible in
implementing its different modules.
Partners: Space and Systems Development Laboratory (SSDL)
Pumpkin Incorporation
Figure 1: CubeSat: A Pico satellite (10x10x10 cm) which is typically used for
educational purposes.
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2.1 Task Assignments
Five universities are participating in this project by seven students and two faculty
members from different disciplines. Every one of these students is responsible on one
(or more) part of the project according to his/her background. A summary table of the
participating universities and tasks are shown as follows:
Table 1: KySat Team and task assignments
University
Morehead
State
University
Member
1 Faculty
Degree
1 Student
Master
Murray State
University
1 Student
Master
University of
Kentucky
1 Faculty
University of
Louisville
Western
Kentucky
University
1 Student
Ph.D.
1 Student
Master
1 Student
Master
1 Student
(Myself)
Ph.D.
1 Student
Master
Major
Antennas and
Communication
Antennas and
Communication
Electrical
Engineering
Electrical
Engineering
Electrical
Engineering
Electrical
Engineering
Mechanical
Engineering
Electrical and
Computer
Engineering
Computer
Science
Task
Advisor
Ground Station
-Hardware
(Power system
design)
Advisor
-Software
Development
-Embedded
Systems
RF
Communication
Mechanical
Aspects
-Ground
Operation and
interfacing
SW
-Payload
Software
Development
3. System Concept of Operations (ConOps)
The first step in this project was to design the concepts of operation of the satellite.
After surveying many previous designs of other cubesats, the team has had elaborated
discussions on these ConOps in terms of: end-user needs, design concerns, launch and
orbiting restrictions, mass and power budgets … etc. The final ConOps that the team
has agreed on includes two modes of operations, as shown in Fig, 2-a and Fig. 2-b.
For detailed explanation of the ConOps of KySat, the reader is referred to the ConOps
presentation which has been presented by the team on 6/25/2006 at Stanford
University.
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Figure 2. KySat: Operation modes (top) basic mode (bottom) advanced mode. The red
ellipses highlight the design area in the project that I have been working in
to implement single-person assigned tasks, as shown in section (4.1.1). The
green circles highlight the work area that I have been working in
collaboration with other people, section (4.1.2).
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4. Activities and Accomplishments
The activities in this project involve many aspects. Specifically, the agenda of the
internship included (1) Technical assignments (2) Academic program (3) Field
visits/demos (4) Documentation work.
4.1 Technical Work
Every member in the KySat team was responsible on a subsystem in terms of the
requirements, design, functionality, and testing. Some overlaps existed between
subsystems, so collaborative work was established in subgroups of two or more
members. Also, the nature of some tasks required equal responsibility of more than
one team member.
On the other hand, a very strong collaboration was established with the members of a
research group in Stanford University who are working in a similar project called
KatySat (Kids Are not Too Young for SATellites).
In this section, the report focuses on the technical work that I have been assigned
individually as well as the technical assignments that I have been working in with
other people.
4.1.1 Individual Work
(a) Develop the core SW components for the ground station operation
The work in this assignment was to design a software system that is used for ground
station operation, which is pointed to by the red ellipses in Fig.2. In other words, to
design and test the ground software system that receives the transmitted packets from
the satellite through the antenna and reformats these packets to retransmit it over the
internet to the data server.
So, the purpose of this software is to establish the essential components for the ground
station to communicate with KySat and the data central server. This is achieved by
developing a program that can be used to read a packet from a serial port (i.e. the
TNC output) and redirect it using a telnet protocol over the internet to the data central
server.
The essential components for this software involves several modules for doing the
following:
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Communication with the TNC output through a serial port.
Appending the necessary headers to the received packets.
Communication with the central server using the RFD 854 telnet protocol.
Retrieving the original data (the sent files) by depacketizing the received
packets on the data server side.
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(b) Develop a test framework for the communication with the ground station
I have developed a test framework for the communication software with the ground
station by simulating the communication process as follows:
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A program was designed to receive the input packets from a virtual serial port
and retransmit them to the data central server after appending a specific
header.
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“first.aprs.net” was used as an initial test server. The use of this server enabled
us to debug the sent packets. The communication to the server using our
KySat ground software has been tested by me with a team member who is
responsible to the communication subsystem.
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All the settings of the serial port, the packet format, the appended header and
the data server are easy to modify for the flight module (FM) final version.
(c) Payload Software
According to the ConOps, the main payload of KySat is the camera system. The goal
of this work is to provide simple image processing tools to be used on the FM. The
plan was to develop a histogram builder for the captured image to be sent as a very
fast clue of the image content. However, I have developed a package that contains
many other tools to be used in case of deciding to extend the functionality of the FM
image processing modules to other tools beyond the image histograms. For example,
the developed package includes image filtering tools, negation beside the histogram
builder. The design of the payload softare was primarily directed by discussion with
the Stanford KatySat team member who is responsible to the camera software.
4.1.2 Collaborative Work
(a) End-user ground operation software
The main goal of this task is to capture the status of the KatySat ground operation
software and see what are the modifications needed to adopt it to our system. I have
been working in this task with KatySat team members who are responsible in the
ground operation GUI.
(b) Packet format
I was a member of a subgroup of the team to study with the KatySat team the design
of the packet format that will be used for the communication of the satellite. Later, we
(the KySat subgroup) have worked in optimizing this packet format in terms of byte
usage and packet contents.
4.1.3 Auxiliary Work
The auxiliary work includes tasks that are secondary, but yet necessary, for the
technical work or the tasks that I have helped in getting it to work, but it was not
assigned to me.
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(a) Orbit simulator
I have helped in troubleshooting, debugging and testing of a software simulator
package for the satellite orbits using different settings, such as altitude, inclination …
etc.
(b) Bill of materials
I have prepared the main bill of material by integrating the inputs of the team
members for the required equipment in every subsystem. The inputs were discussed
either in the team meetings or on individual basis.
4.2 Academic Activities
The academic activities in this internship include three main programs:
4.2.1 Spacecraft Design Class
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Class Number: AA236 - Spacecraft Design.
Instructor: Dr. James Cutler.
Meetings: Tuesdays and Thursdays 4:00-7:00 PM during summer 2006.
Place: Stanford University.
Description: The class was mainly offered for the KatySat team to go through
the details of the design process of the KatySat. The class is
divided into several phases, one per semester. The KySat team had
attended the fourth phase which was in summer 2006.
4.2.2 Concentrated Spacecraft Design Lectures
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Class Number: N/A
Instructor: Prof. Bob Twiggs
Meetings: Wednesdays 6:00-8:00 PM EST via internet before the travel to
CA. Then, Fridays 10:00-12:00 AM at NASA-Ames after arriving
to CA.
Place:
- Remotely using the internet webnars (before the travel)
- NASA-Ames Research Campus.
Description: This lecture series was offered by Prof. Bob Twiggs, the
inventor of the cubesat, to the KySat team to enable the members
up to speed quickly with the KatySat team. The material of the
lectures was a concentrated dose of the spacecraft design class. The
main topics of these lectures are:
Overview of Space Systems Engineering
Space Systems Documentation
Overview of Orbital Dynamics
Space Environment
Spacecraft Subsystems
Electronic Power Systems
Communications
Telemetry, Tracking & Control
Command and Data Handling
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4.2.3 Technical Lectures on CubeSat Development
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Class Number: N/A
Instructor: Dr. Andrew Kalman
Meetings: Wednesdays 6:00-8:00 PM EST via internet before the travel to
CA. Then, irregular Wednesdays 3:00-5:00 PM PST at NASAAmes after arriving to CA.
Place:
- Remotely using the internet webnars (before the travel)
- NASA-Ames Research Center.
Description: This lecture series was presented as a tutorial on the CubeSat
design and development. The purpose was to introduce the team
members to the CubeSat development kit which is a product of
Pumpkin Inc. The lecture material was oriented to both hardware
and software sides.
4.2.4 One-Day Workshop on MSP430 Microcontroller and Salvo Operating systems
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Class Number: N/A
Instructor: Dr. Andrew Kalman
Place:
- Pumpkin Company, San Francisco
Description: This workshop was a comprehensive review of the main
processing unit of KySat, MSP430 microcontroller (an ultra-low
power processor). Also, it was an elaborated explanation with
examples of the operating system for MSP430, Salvo.
4.3 Field Visits/Demos
Several field visits have been organized and attending many demos have been
attended for learning purposes.
4.3.1 California Polytechnic State University
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When: 6/28/2006 – 6/29/2006
Where: California Polytechnic State University (CalPoly), San Luis Obispo
CA
Description: The visit was organized to the Project-Based Learning (PBL lab)
to learn the pre-launch testing and preparation procedures. Moreover,
online satellite tracking and communications have been attended by the
KySat team. PBL is one of the most known places that perform
satellite testing and design deployment systems. During this visit, we
were supposed to remotely follow the launch of 14 cubesats on a single
space shuttle. Unfortunately, the launch was rescheduled for a month
later. Sadly, we knew later that the launch failed due to the explosion
of the rocket after only few minutes.
4.3.2 Stanford University Dish-Sites
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When: 6/14/2006, 6/15/2006
Where: Stanford University, Stanford CA
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Description: Two visits were organized by Prof. Bob Twiggs to the sites of
the 21m and 50m dishes of the Stanford University. The team saw an
online demonstration for the operation of the 50m antenna.
4.3.3 The Space and Systems Development Laboratory (SSDL)
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When: Several times
Where: Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Stanford University,
Stanford CA
Description: Several visits have been made to the SSDL lab to see tha
facilities there and to share ideas with the students about many design issues.
4.3.4 SSDL Demos
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When: Once a week.
Where: Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Stanford University,
Stanford CA
Description: Several demos has been presented by the KatySat team members
to illustrate the functionality and the design concerns of the KatySat
different modules. Examples of these demos are:
Communication modules
Antenna deployment
Power system
4.4 Documentation Tools
There are three main documentation tools that the KySat team has been using:
4.4.1 Presentations
During the internship three major presentations have been prepared and presented by
the KySat team.
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Concept of Operations
Hardware Systems Review
KySat Briefing & Status Report
For details of these presentations, please see the associated files.
4.4.2 WIKI
A Wiki site hosted by the Idea Lab in University of Kentucky was the official method
of documentation for working calendar, meetings minutes, action items,
reports/presentations drafts, and announcements.
A public area of the KySat can be found at:
http://www.engr.uky.edu/idea/wiki/doku.php?id=projects:active:kysat:public:default
&s=public
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4.4.3 CVS
A Concurrent Version System (CVS) was used by KatySat team to keep their code
and documentations updated. KySat team has established and used a similar CVS
system for the KySat project.
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5. Appendix
The file of the following presentations are attached as supplementary materials.
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Concept of Operations
Hardware Systems Review
KySat Briefing & Status Report
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