Bigelow Aerospace Genesis Testing Expandable Spacecraft

in LEO

Tom LondriganMission Operations Manager

Bigelow Aerospace

Used with Permission

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Bigelow Aerospace Company Overview

Bigelow Aerospace is a privately owned company dedicated to developing low-cost, next-generation crewed space complexes.

Facilities and personnel– Currently 95 personnel

• Seeking qualified engineers

– Main facility in North Las Vegas• 500,000 Square foot assembly facility• Fabrication capabilities for all modules• Mission Control facility• Ground communication assets• Radiation exposure facility (LDRS) onsite

– Office in Washington D.C.

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Genesis

The Genesis program utilizes space vehicles in Low Earth Orbit with the objective of testing and validating the technologies necessary for the deployment of expandable space habitats

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Genesis

The Genesis program consists of two small scale prototype spacecraft, currently in orbit

Genesis 1 – Launched July 12, 2006

Genesis 2 – Launched June 28, 2007

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Mission Profile

Orbital Parameters 583x556 km, 64.5 deg inclination– Nominal 10 year mission orbital decay

Nominal Aft earth facing orientation– Gravity gradient fallacy – more on this later

Insertion on Dnepr Launch Vehicle– Silo launched – SS-18 ICBM Modified for small satellite insertion– Final Spacecraft integration occurred at Dombarovsky facility

Genesis launched inert, Auto activation on separation

No re-boost capability

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Mission Objectives

Primary Objective– Demonstrate Inflation and Deployment in LEO

Secondary Objectives– Develop core competency to build, launch and operate satellites and

space complexes– Proof of concept for folding, restraint, and core structure– Evaluate the Durability of soft goods– Long term Effectiveness of the MMOD shield

Tertiary (Mission Creep) Objectives– Revenue and interest-generating payloads– Evaluate the performance of various off-the-shelf (literally) electronic

components– Obtain long term evaluation of power systems – Evaluate radiation environment

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Genesis Spacecraft description

Internal core structure, surrounded by inflated volume– Battery and payloads in interior of spacecraft– Some avionics contained on exterior of the core structure– Launch adapter on aft end

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Genesis Spacecraft description

MMOD shield description

– Multi-layer insulation with interstitial foam to provide loft

– Restraint layer – load bearing

– Air Barrier

– Folded in launch configuration, restrained with straps

Deployment systems

– Retention straps released using pyro cutters• Contingency - Retention straps sized to fail/release due to expansion

forces– Solar array deployment

– All deployment and inflation controlled by onboard flight computer

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Genesis Payloads

Genebox - Genesis 1

– Small payload from Ames

– Objective was to test sensors and optical systems for GeneSat

Radiation Monitors

– Dose Depth Monitors• RadFETs to measure

cumulative energy deposition

– Proton Monitors• Single Event Upset

measurement

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Genesis Payloads

Logos

– some demonstration, some paying customers

“Fly-Your-Stuff” program

– Small objects and cards

– Allow private individuals to fly small objects in space verified by downlinked photos

– Approximately 80 customers

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Genesis Systems

Inflation– Genesis 1 : Single tank, redundant solenoid valves– Genesis 2 : 4 tanks, 1 solenoid valve each

Power– 8 Solar array “wings”, single battery with redundant charge

regulators– Solar array capacity was intentionally over-designed, with partial

capability available even in deployment failure. – Solar arrays were designed to be tolerant of solar incident angle

Communications– Redundant omni-directional antennae on each end of spacecraft– UHF/VHF for duplex command and telemetry– S-band for photo downlink

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Genesis Systems

Telemetry

– Genesis 1 – 1172 data parameters

– Genesis 2 – 1830 data parameters

– All data is recorded onboard the spacecraft and downloaded as encrypted files during passes over ground sites

– Data sampling rate can be scaled up and down as necessary to prevent build up of data

– Real time data points can be obtained by direct query while in communication coverage

– Data is collected and archived at the Las Vegas site

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Genesis Systems

Cameras – Genesis 1: 18 cameras for internal

and external evaluation of softgoods, some oriented on payloads

– Genesis 2 : 22 cameras for internal and external evaluation of softgoods• Mounted on solar arrays (4) for

observing softgoods and capturing projector images

• Interior Pan-Tilt-Zoom cameras operable from ground

• Wireless deployable camera on exterior of MMOD shielding

• Some oriented on internal payloads • Fisheye and Narrow field of view

mounted on ends

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Genesis Cameras

Aft mounted cameras provided earth observations – minimum resolvable distance 0.25 miles

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Genesis Systems

Projectors

– Off the shelf from the local electronics store, modified only enough to allow remote commanding and mounting

– Placed on aft and forward solar array ends to project images onto exterior

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Attitude Control Systems

Mission Design provided very forgiving pointing requirements– Nadir aft orientation and rotation about long axis provided a benign

thermal environment – ‘rotisserie’ effect

– RF link margin and antenna radiating patterns allowed for comm. from almost all angles

Hardware– Magnetometers

• 2 mounted in forward end

– Sun Sensors • 4 on forward structure

– Magnetic torque rods• 2 mounted in X (longitudinal) axis • One each mounted in Y, Z axes

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Ground Station Network

Description of Ground communications architecture– For Genesis 1 launch, VA and NV ground stations only– UHF, VHF uplink capability– 6-meter S-band dish– Some leased sites, however all assets are the property of Bigelow

Aerospace

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Ground Stations

Setup and commissioning of new ground stations– For Genesis 2 launch added AK, HI sites– Shifted VA ground station to Maine and added S-band dish

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Future Ground sites

Additional Ground sites are planned to increase coverage on future missions

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De-Orbit

De-orbit Analysis

– Current orbital lifetime is estimated to be 12 years

• We are examining the drag models and refining estimates on a monthly basis

– Object Reentry Satellite Analysis Tool (ORSAT) de-orbit analysis from April 2004

• Parent body and Fragmentation analysis

• All structural components predicted to demise upon re-entry

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Spacecraft Construction and Testing

Spacecraft assembly occurred at Nevada facility, followed by shipment to Russia.

Final checkout at launch base, then turned over to Kosmotras for integration onto the space head module

– ITAR at the time necessitated stringent restrictions for launch base ops and plans for recovery of possible launch failure.

Applying design updates in an accelerated design cycle between Genesis 1 and 2

– Integration begun less than six months after launch of Genesis 1 - 6 months before scheduled ship date

Limitations of Facilities and equipment on testing– Most equipment bench tested but bare bones approach prevents a large

amount of testing systems for end to end testing– Difficulties in fully testing ACS sensors, radio systems in flight configuration

Risk tradeoffs/ Risk acceptance– Ultimately for Genesis 1 and 2, there was just one paying internal customer,

who was willing to evaluate and accept risks

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Overview of Genesis 1 and 2 operations

Creating Mission Operations from scratch – all prior efforts had been on building the spacecraft

– Creating plans – as basic as establishing chain of command for decision making

– Establishing procedures where there are none

• flight rules – discuss prior to eliminate real-time debate, Etc.

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Genesis Operations

First contact – planning for contingences on an experimental spacecraft– Minimal ground assets in place, spacecraft tumbling which

complicated contact• Effectively, contact time was 2-3 minutes

– Needed to perform quick health and status evaluations– Downlink photos to satisfy THE customer– Verify all functions of automated sequence– Nominal tipoff rate of insertion was <2 RPM – we got better than this

but ACS system was not fully operational – no stability for the first week

Follow-on operations– We are holding pressure – pictures are pretty, now what?– Examining the inflation sequence and increasing pressure– Downloading complete data sets, all photo documentation

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Results

Both Spacecraft have performed flawlessly on primary objective– inflation and deployment

Power Consumption – battery performance was within design tolerances– No appreciable solar array degradation in capacity

Inflation results – stable pressure with no leakage

Thermal – Genesis provided data and analysis of the soft goods performance in an orbital environment

Communications – this mission provided spaceflight heritage for radios which are planned to fly on future missions

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Lessons Learned from Genesis 1

In God we trust, all others bring data – rapid build process had not captured test data

– If it is not documented, it did not happen

ACS – not all disturbance torques were captured in first analysis– Rapid integration of the algorithm resulted in constant on of torquers

• ACS system had to be reconfigured on orbit – Initial ‘gravity gradient’ fallacy – other disturbance torques proved

dominant

Identified need for baseline testing and documentation –compressed schedule did not allow for validation of as built configuration

Thermal sensors were few, and sensor placement needed better documentation

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Applications to Genesis 2

Implemented test plans

Established Pre-ship review process

Increased thermal sensors and thoroughly documented placement on spacecraft

– Placed thermal sensors within the MMOD shielding

– Modeled the sensor placement with CAD programs

Documented all test data for comparisonon orbit

– Mission Operator input was used to create new formats and cataloguing of data

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Genesis 2 Initial Ops

What we improved

Operations

– Established and validated procedures on Genesis 1

– Validated all Genesis 2 procedure delta’s during testing

– Better communication plans

– Baseline testing allowed better system performance evaluation

– ACS system algorithms debugged

• Checklist for activation rather than turning it on

• When we turned the ACS system on, communications stabilized within 48 hours

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Lesson Learned from Genesis 2

Mission Data Analysis – empirical data for LEO

– Thermal Data

– Radiation Data

– Drag Analysis – performing model comparisons, essential for future vehicles

• Continuing ongoing analysis shows some unexpected data not fully modeled– Example: eccentricity of orbit fluctuating – counter-intuitive to the drag

model

• Long term effort using Two Line Element and tracking data to evaluate orbital lifetime

Identified the need for a high fidelity ground analog vehicle for testing

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Obstacles to Overcome

Limitations on ground station access – all operations become time critical

ITAR restrictions

Minimizing expenditure on ground infrastructure while using only proprietary assets

Genesis systems were simple but most lessons learned were procedural – problems will be prevented

Maintain highly creative, innovative atmosphere while creating more rigorous processes

No acceptance criteria (at first)

Overcome ‘Not invented here’ mentality

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Applications to future spacecraft

Future vehicles

– Sundancer• Crewed module

• Engineering proof of concept

• Approximately 180 m3

– BA Standard • Full size module ~300 m3

• Capable of 3 crew

– Propulsion Bus• Attached node for complex assembly

• Reboost and resupply capability

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Questions?

Tom Londrigan702-639-4440

tlondrigan@bigelowaerospace.com

www.bigelowaerospace.com