V. Franzese
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5 records found
1
The paper presents the initial outcomes of a project, currently ongoing under the supervision of the European Space Agency, having the main objective to specify and design a Fault Detection Isolation and Recovery (FDIR) system by making use of relevant RAMS (Reliability, Availability, Maintainability, Safety) analyses for missions in non-deterministic environment with limited resources. The initial project tasks have been to select a study case represented by a CubeSat complex mission, analyse in detail both its mission and system requirements and, based on them, define a set of relevant RAMS analyses to be carried out in the second phase of the project, as inputs for the development of a FDIR concept aimed at a careful balance of the limited spacecraft resources in case of critical failures. Two possible study cases have been identified: LUMIO, a 12U CubeSat mission for the observation of micro-meteoroid impacts on the Lunar farside, and M-ARGO, a 12U deep-space CubeSat which will rendezvous with a near-Earth asteroid and characterize its physical properties for the presence of in-situ resources. Although both missions are characterized by a high level of autonomy and complexity in a harsh environment, LUMIO has been eventually selected as study case for the project. In the paper, the challenges and features of this mission are shortly presented. The specificities of the RAMS analysis and FDIR concept for this specific class of small satellite missions (including the selected study case) are highlighted in the paper, looking in particular at aspects such as the improvement of reliability while maintaining the CubeSat philosophy, the tuning of mission and system requirements in view of facilitating the design and implementation of the FDIR concept, and the current gaps within the RAMS/FDIR body of knowledge. The conclusions drawn during this first project phase provide a real view of how systems engineering must work in tandem with RAMS analyses and FDIR to achieve a more robust and functional mission architecture, thus improving the mission reliability.
Current Status of LUMIO Mission
Characterizing Lunar Meteoroid Impacts with a CubeSat
Design Challenges and Opportunities Offered by the LUMIO Spacecraft
A CubeSat for Observing and Characterizing Micro-Meteoroid Impacts on the Lunar Far Side
Mars Atmospheric Radiation Imaging Orbiter (MARIO) is a 16U stand-alone CubeSat mission that shall escape Earth, perform autonomous deep-space cruise, achieve ballistic capture, and enter an operational orbit at Mars to perform thermal radiation imaging. This work focuses on the systems design of MARIO. The design of combined chemical-electric propulsion systems, comprising FLP-106 based green chemical monopropellant thruster and the iodine-fueled RF ion thruster, for hybrid high-thrust-low-thrust Earth-Mars transfer is presented. Reflectarrays along with high-gain antennas are utilised to establish long-distance low-bandwidth X-band communication link with the Earth. Electrical power system design is pursued to provide steady power to the system during the transfer and science operations phases. A novel autonomous navigation strategy is proposed which includes horizon-based optical navigation near target bodies and deep-space line-of-sight navigation for accurate state estimation for autonomous operations. Details regarding on-board processing, attitude determination, and thermal control are delineated. Feasible budgets for mass and communications link are obtained. The structural composition of MARIO is detailed.