• Dr. Alex Ghosh
  • CU Aerospace & University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  • 104D Surge Building
  • 4:00 p.m.
  • Faculty Host: Dr. Craig Woolsey

Small CubeSat-class satellites are opening up new avenues for science and technology development within the space industry.  What was once a purely educational tool has quickly become the newest international exploration platform for low earth orbit missions.  These sub-10 kg satellites ride into space as tertiary payloads, kicked out of their launch vehicles after all other satellites have reached their target orbit, and are left to survive in whatever ride-share provided orbit they are deposited into.  Due to their small mass and volume, it has been infeasible until very recently to put any form of on-board propulsion on these spacecraft without a significant sacrifice of the science objectives.  Because of the atypical combination of low-thrust with high propellant mass consumption, a new toolset is needed to assist with planning of both single and cooperative multi-satellite missions.