NARRATOR

At a conference last year, while I staffed NASA’s Space Communications and Navigation booth, a group of kids approached me, pen and paper in hand: miniature investigators with hundreds of questions. They were middle schoolers… from somewhere in Florida, I think. I tackled their questions to the best of my ability.

I’m no engineer, I just write about them.

I asked what brought them here. Why they were here, attending a technical conference in the Midwest, so far from home?

They were part of a group of students launching a small satellite to the International Space Station. Their résumés already included a number of science instruments launched aboard high-altitude balloons.

When I was their age, I thought myself a grand engineer, building bridges across the creek near my house with sticks and stones.

The Small Satellite Conference in Logan, Utah, was my first foray into the world of small satellites. When I started working in space communications as a technical writer, our team was ramping up for the launch of a giant communications satellite weighing as much as a full-grown African elephant.

The satellites I encountered at this conference were compact affairs, more piglet than elephant. Yet, they were designed with serious science in mind, hoping to accomplish more with less. Many of these little spacecraft were also designed by young people.

I’m Danny Baird. This is “The Invisible Network.”

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Framed by the Wasatch Mountains and bleached white by the sun, Shoshone Nation teepees rise from the Great Basin. At the trader’s cabin, mountain men hone their tomahawk-throwing skills. Nearby, a pioneer woman spins wool at the wheel. Soon, teenagers will pose with her for a selfie. At the American West Heritage Center, modern Utah celebrates the American frontier: the old west.

Nine miles north, NASA celebrated a different frontier: the final frontier.

In 1987, Utah State University hosted the first Small Satellite Conference. The event began as a modest forum on reducing the size and complexity of satellites. At the founding of the conference, many failed to see the value in miniaturization. In fact, an early speaker gave a keynote suggesting that small satellites had no value whatsoever, an odd address given the venue.

In spite of the naysayers, the conference continued. Logan, Utah, became the epicenter of a movement. From the era of “faster, better, cheaper” in the ’90s to the introduction of CubeSats at the dawn of the new millennium, interest in smallsats grew. Now, the conference draws about 3,000 people from 40 countries representing a wide variety of military, civil, educational and commercial entities. Today, few in the industry fail to recognize the importance of these small but mighty spacecraft — technological pioneers that provide a cheap, responsive alternative to larger, more expensive satellites.

Over the conference’s more than 30 years, NASA has accumulated the most author credits among papers published at the conference, significantly contributing to the growing body of knowledge in the field. NASA also led the charge in utilizing small satellites as teaching tools with its 2007 program, the Educational Launch of Nanosatellites, or ELaNa. The CubeSat Launch Initiative, a program within ELaNa, launches CubeSats developed by schools and non-profits aboard the rockets of larger missions with space to spare.

Programs like these would pair students like my new friends from Florida with space-bound missions of their own.

But what are these CubeSats?

CubeSats are small satellites consisting of standardized cubed units, or U’s, each about 60 cubic inches. A 1U CubeSat can weigh as little as 3 pounds. They provide opportunities for small-scale research projects at a fraction of the cost of larger flagship missions. The satellites spend an average of 90 days in orbit before falling to Earth, burning up in the atmosphere. Since their inception, CubeSats have been an important part of small satellite research and development.

Additionally, a lot of CubeSat hardware can be purchased off-the-shelf by schools and universities, bridging the gap between aerospace student and aerospace engineer. They’re an invaluable teaching tool, giving students an opportunity to move their education out of the abstract and into orbit.

Across all industries, small satellites are adapting to feed an increasingly data-hungry public. In this spirit, the Small Satellite Conference adopted “Small Satellites, Big Data” as its theme for 2017, the year I attended. The event focused on the challenges in collecting, transmitting, managing, manipulating and interpreting data.

During my time with the space communications team at Goddard Space Flight Center, I’ve encountered interns working to address these challenges head on — particularly in the world of CubeSats. This past summer, two projects stand out.

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Mohamed Abdin came to Goddard from the University of South Florida, where he pursues a Ph.D. in electrical engineering. Over the summer, he worked with mentor Serhat Altunc to develop a communications architecture that uses a low-cost, commercially available radio to provide CubeSats with a communications link with a range of well over 6 million miles.

This architecture would enable a CubeSat to communicate with both NASA’s Near Earth Network ground stations on Earth and NASA’s Space Network, a constellation of relay satellites that offer near-continuous communications to users. Over 10 upcoming missions are slated to use the design that came out of Mohamed’s summer project, which also included investigating ways to securely transfer mission data using a cloud-based solution.

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Ricky Velasquez came to Goddard from Wichita State University in Kansas, where he pursues an undergraduate degree in computer engineering. Over the summer, he worked with mentor Yen Wong to model communications schemes for CubeSat constellations. He worked specifically to determine characteristics of code-division multiple access signals that could downlink an adequate daily data volume to the ground. Code-division multiple access signals enable all the CubeSats in a constellation to share the same frequency.

He performed this simulation for CubeSats with a “mother-daughter” configuration relationship. In this setup, satellites flying in formation have two distinct roles. Daughter ships collect data; forward that data to the mothership; the mothership relays that data to the ground.

Ricky also performed a link budget analysis to determine the data rate achievable with an off-the-shelf Ka-band flight system in low-Earth and lunar orbits using the Near Earth Network. The results of this analysis will be published in an upcoming book about small satellites.

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These innovations reflect NASA’s devotion to CubeSat development, as well as the cost-effective science that can be performed on them. Intern-developed small satellite technologies showcase the value of student-led research and experimentation made possible by cost-effective CubeSats… The next generation of innovators powering next-gen technologies.

The Space Communications and Navigation Intern Project, or SIP, pairs students interested in STEM careers with mentors working at NASA in space communications. SIP students from around the country work alongside their mentors on projects across all disciplines: science, technology, engineering, math — even finance, outreach and business administration.

Barbara Adde serves as the policy and strategic communications lead for the Space Communications and Navigation program office. As part of her job, she provides oversight to interns working in space communications.

BARBARA ADDE

This is just one example of the exciting results from the close collaboration between NASA mentors and the promising students who participate in the SCaN Intern Project. High school, undergrad and grad students who are eager to be a part of NASA’s Space Communication and Navigation program should check out our website for more information — at nasa.gov/SCaN.

Why not you?

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NARRATOR

Back at the American West Heritage Center, nine miles south of the Small Satellite Conference, visitors explore a time when space had a different meaning. It’s the sky above them, an azure expanse strewn with loose cotton. It’s buffalo grazing on endless flats of ambers and greens. Mostly though, it’s the space between people.

In the 1800s, letters could take months to reach Utah if they made it there at all. Nowadays, satellites of all shapes and sizes connect us near-instantaneously. As innovation’s blistering pace accelerates, NASA remains at the cutting edge of communications technologies, connecting to data gleaned from space and preparing the next generations of pioneers for their journeys into vast expanses beyond our blue marble.

During my time in Utah last year, I learned a lot about the next generation… the next generation of small satellite technology… the next generation of CubeSat research… a hundred NASA and commercial missions propelling us into the future.

Mostly though, I learned about the next generation of engineers, kids who grew up in the age of CubeSats, a time when space seemed just a little less far away. The rapt attention of those Florida middle schoolers spoke to their passion for spaceflight and exploration. When I welcomed them to visit a NASA center for a tour, I felt a little silly. I’m sure they’ll one day come to NASA for more than just a visit.

CubeSats may be small, but their impact is mighty. Perhaps the greatest contributions these tiny pioneers make isn’t to research… maybe it’s to making space more accessible… maybe it’s to children who don’t just play in their backyards… children who play among the stars.

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The Invisible Network is a NASA podcast presented by theSpace Communications and Navigation program. This episode was written by me, Danny Baird, and released on Oct. 16, 2018. Editorial oversight provided by Ashley Hume. Our public affairs officers are Clare Skelly and Peter Jacobs. Make sure to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and share us with a friend. For the full text of this episode, a list of sources and related images visit nasa.gov/SCaN.