Development of Telemetry Ranging for Small Satellites: A Ranging technique for Delfi-PQ

Small satellite systems such as CubeSats and PocketQubes have strict requirements in terms of size, weight, and power available onboard. In light of these constraints, small satellite systems typically omit the inclusion of a ranging system due to its power and specialized hardware requirements. However, new research in satellite ranging...

Determining the characteristics of icy moons' impactors: An experimental approach

Crater counting is the main method used to determine the age of a planetary surface. This method relies on knowing the cratering rate to estimate the absolute age of a surface. However, two theories currently exist for impact cratering of the moons in the Saturnian system, one suggesting that the majority of the impactors are of heliocentric...

Radio-Based Satellite Tracking Systems for the DelfiSpace Program: Phase Interferometry and Time Difference of Arrival

Satellite tracking is used to predict a satellite’s orbit to communicate and perform other key functions. It is commonly performed using large ground-based radars with an accuracy of 1 to 10 km or specialized onboard satellite systems. Ground optical systems are a proliferating technology for satellite tracking, identification, and...

Development of a Satellite Communication System for the Submarines of the Royal Netherlands Navy

The Brik-II satellite is a Nano-Satellite which has the main objective to be a technology demonstrator and prove the use of self owned military satellites. One of the payloads onboard the Brik-II satellite is called the Store and Forward payload. It has the capability to Store and Forward messages from and to different military assets. To...

Stereo Matching for Martian Surface Depth Estimation on a Single-Board Computer

Stereo matching, the process of inferring depth maps from stereo images, is one of the most heavily investigated topics in computer vision. It is part of the first module of navigation systems of planetary rovers, e.g., NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover (MER) missions, NASA’s Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) mission, and ESA’s ExoMars mission. Many...

Data Processing: Architectures and Techniques Applied to CubeSat Missions

This master thesis addresses the need for a telemetry processing for Delfi Space spacecraft operations, a nano-satellite program of the Delft University of Technology. It lays the groundwork for the telemetry processing system (TPS) implementation and explores the design guidelines for a highly scalable but robust and adaptive architecture.

Attitude Control Subsystem Design of the Stable and Highly Accurate Pointing Earth-imager

As technology improves, increasingly higher resolution payload can be achieved using Cubesats for Earth observation. The diffraction limit prevents the resolution to up to a few meters for these missions and are confined to Very Low Earth Orbits (VLEO). At these altitudes, strong disturbances act on the system, limiting its lifetime and the...