Cubesat Constellations, Clusters & Swarm

by Patrick H. Stakem

Overview

This book discusses the application of Cubesat Clusters, Constellations, and Swarms in the exploration of the solar systems. This includes the Sun, the 8 primary planets and Pluto, many moon, the asteroid belt, comets, the ring systems of the four gas giants, and comets. There is a lot to explore. U.S. Spacecraft have been to all of the planets in the solar system. Although the planets (and Pluto) have been visited by spacecraft, Earth's moon has been somewhat explored, and many of the other planets' moons have been imaged, there is a lot of "filling in the blanks" to be done. Here we explore the application of groups of small independent spacecraft to take on this role. Some of the enabling technology for cooperating swarms is examined. The big picture is, Cubesats are not just secondary payloads anymore, They may be small, but a lot of them together can accomplish a lot. We'll discuss the technologies to make this happen.
Just after this book was published, an event occurred requiring an update. Such is the march of technology The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) launched 104 Cubesats from their Sriharikota launch site into Polar orbit. This was a new record for the number of satellites to orbit in one mission. It also validated the concept of Cubesats as a primary payload. They were deployed in 18 minutes.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940157456009
Publisher:	PRRB Publishing
Publication date:	05/23/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	52 KB

About the Author

Mr. Stakem has been interested in rockets and spacecraft since high school. He received a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Carnegie-Mellon University in 1971, where he was a member of the Applied Space Sciences group. His first job was for Fairchild Industries, then building the ATS-6 spacecraft. Wernher von Braun joined Fairchild as Vice-President of Engineering during this time, so, technically, Mr. Stakem was once a member of the von Braun Team. Specializing in support of spacecraft onboard computers, he has worked at every NASA Center. He supported the Apollo-Soyuz mission with the ATS-6 communications satellite. He received Master’s degrees in Physics and Computer Science from the Johns Hopkins University. He has taught for Loyola University in Maryland, Graduate Department of Computer Science, AIAA, The Johns Hopkins University, Whiting School of Engineering, and Capitol Technology University.