Date of Award:

11-15-2011

Document Type:

Thesis

Degree Name:

Master of Science (MS)

Department:

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Advisor/Chair:

Dr. Charles M. Swenson

Abstract

The single bus voltage distributed architecture is the mainstay architecture for small satellite spacecraft. Even large satellites follow this architecture. While they may have more than one voltage that is distributed, such as a high voltage bus and a low voltage bus, within a subsystem, there is usually one bus voltage. Each subsystem component is responsible for further regulation or point-of-load regulation. The Nano-satellite class, and more particularly the cubesat, have broken away from this norm and overwhelmingly implement a centralized architecture. With the advances of small, highly efficient monolithic dc-dc converters, this thesis researches the possibilities of implementing the distributed architecture at the cubesat scale. The Goal is to create a very efficient electrical power system design that has a high degree of utility, allowing it to be used for multiple missions, without having to redesign the system every time.

Copyright for this work is retained by the student.