LEDSAT: a LED-Based CubeSat for Optical Orbit Determination Methodologies Improvement

Cialone, Giammarco; Marzioli, Paolo; Masillo, Silvia; Gianfermo, Andrea; Frezza, Lorenzo; Pellegrino, Alice; Piergentili, Fabrizio; Santoni, Fábio

doi:10.1109/metroaerospace.2018.8453518

Cited by 10 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 10 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…All used acronyms and abbreviations should be listed in alphabetical order, as follows: LEDSAT is a 1U CubeSat developed by Sapienza University of Rome, in collaboration with the University of Michigan [1], [2]. The mission aims at verifying the functionalities provided by onboard LEDs for the orbital determination and experimental attitude determination from ground, using telescopes to observe the satellite [3]- [7]. The idea was developed in 2016, in the context of a spacecraft design class in a Master's course in engineering and was presented to be part of the Fly Your Satellite!…”

Section: Acronyms/abbreviationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lessons learned during the development of LEDSAT from the students of the S5Lab

Frezza¹,

Marzioli²,

Gianfermo³

et al. 2022

4th Symposium on Space Educational Activities

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The LEDSAT 1U Cubesat, a satellite roughly 10x10x11cm, was developed between late 2016 and 2021 by students of Sapienza University of Rome. The project was conceived with the help of the University of Michigan and started being developed by space engineering master students of Sapienza in a class context. The team of the S5Lab (Sapienza Space System and Space Surveillance Laboratory) continued the project and applied for the Fly Your Satellite! Programme of ESA Education, which has followed the development of the CubeSat, providing important expert support and periodic reviews. The approach brought to the students an invaluable educational experience as they participated actively in the development of a spacecraft with the typical milestones of satellite projects. The mission objectives of LEDSAT include the use of onboard LEDs for improved orbit determination, experimental attitude determination and backup light communication. Each of the six sides of the CubeSat houses an LED board of a different color (red, green, and blue) with opposite sides with paired color. The LEDs can flash a pattern predefined by radio telecommand and the light is observed using ground telescopes. The design of the spacecraft started in late 2016 and was presented at the selection workshop of the Fly Your Satellite! Programme in May 2017. Final assembly took place in mid-2020 after which the team performed functional and environmental testing between October and December 2020, with the objective of ensuring the survivability of the spacecraft in the space environment and characterization of its behavior. After successful testing, the spacecraft was integrated inside the deployer in July 2021 in Brno, Czech Republic and was launched from Kourou, French Guiana on August 17th, 2021, aboard the Vega VV19 launcher. The spacecraft is now in orbit and operating nominally, with the LED flashes having been observed several times. The development of the spacecraft was not without difficulty, with preventable issues arising through testing that imposed design changes and further analysis - the paper will walk through the project since its conception, throughout the development, the functional and environmental testing of the payload and at system level, emphasizing the lessons learned by the students.

show abstract

Section: Acronyms/abbreviationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lessons learned during the development of LEDSAT from the students of the S5Lab

Frezza¹,

Marzioli²,

Gianfermo³

et al. 2022

4th Symposium on Space Educational Activities

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…• Total Ionizing Dose (TID) and Displacement Damage (DD) radiation testing, for ensuring the diodes to be compliant with the mission time in the simulated orbit environment (LEDSAT was qualified to radiation to TID testing in 2017 [30]); • Ultra-Violet (UV) radiation testing, for ensuring that the LED wavelengths does not deviate towards the yellow color due to yellowing of the silicone cover of the LED ( [30]); • Thermal-Vacuum qualification in both unbiased and biased conditions, to confirm the survivability of the LEDs for external mount on satellites; • Vibration testing for the prototype LED boards to verify the survivability of assembly and solder joints;…”

Section: Space Segment: Led Panels Featuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Usage of Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) for improved satellite tracking

et al. 2021

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

With the increasing number of satellite launches, especially in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), optical tracking can offer a convenient enhancement of tracking precision and availability. Spaceborne active illumination devices, such as LED payloads, can offer a significant improvement to optical observations, extending the observability interval to the whole eclipse time and performing optimized flash sequences for identification, orbit determination, attitude reconstruction or low data rate communication. The main features of LED panels for optical tracking mounted on small satellites platforms (and with particular regards to nano-satellite platforms) are outlined in this paper, along with the description of the design drivers. The analysis of the performance is referred to Sun-Synchronous (at 700 km of altitude) and International Space Station (400 km) orbits, while the ground segment and the optical link budget reference design relies on a standard university space debris observation station architecture. The paper also outlines the advantages of using different observation techniques and the variety of flashing patterns. The LEDSAT 1U CubeSat, aiming at demonstrating the effectiveness of an LED-based payload for observation and tracking, is used as a study case for examples of the LED payloads and related operations that are reported and described in this paper.

show abstract

“…Inspired by the design of satellite LED beacon lamps, LEDSAT 1U CubeSat is under development at Sapienza University of Rome since 2016 [3,4]. The brightness LEDSAT 1U CubeSat is 8.5 magnitude.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ladybeetle-I: design of the brightest beacon lamp for LEO microsatellite

Mei,

wang,

et al. 2024

Sixth Conference on Frontiers in Optical Imaging and Technology: Imaging Detection and Target Recognition

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

As a commercial aerospace education satellite, “Ladybeetle-I” has flashed many times around the world, which has attracted the attention of many astronomers. This manuscript presents the design of the beacon lamp of this satellite. Consider the limitation of low power consumption, small volume and light weight of “Ladybeetle-I”, this beacon lamp is designed by the combination of light emitting diode (LED) array structure and total internal reflection (TIR) lens. Firstly, through the analysis of structure parameters, color temperature and working state of LED, the light source of the beacon lamp is realized. Secondly, through the analysis of the requirements parameter of TIR lens, the lens of the beacon lamp is realized. This beacon lamp realizes that the “Ladybeetle-I” in the 547-km LEO can be directly observed by naked eyes within the radius of more than 25 km. Furthermore, the satellite in-orbit test results show that the brightness of the beacon lamp at Sub-Satellite Point is higher than -0.6 magnitude (m) stars. To the best of our knowledge, “Ladybeetle-I”, which utilizes this beacon lamp, is the first and only LEO satellite that can be directly observed by naked eye.

show abstract

LEDSAT: a LED-Based CubeSat for Optical Orbit Determination Methodologies Improvement

Cited by 10 publications

References 10 publications

Lessons learned during the development of LEDSAT from the students of the S5Lab

Lessons learned during the development of LEDSAT from the students of the S5Lab

Usage of Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) for improved satellite tracking

Ladybeetle-I: design of the brightest beacon lamp for LEO microsatellite

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About