Date of Award:

12-2011

Document Type:

Thesis

Degree Name:

Master of Science (MS)

Department:

Electrical and Computer Engineering

Committee Chair(s)

Charles M. Swenson

Committee

Charles M. Swenson

Committee

Edmund A. Spencer

Committee

Jacob Gunther

Abstract

The cubesat spacecraft was conceived over ten years ago. Since that time, close to 100 cubesat satellites have either been launched or are in the process of construction. Although started as an educational teaching tool, the cubesat is gaining popularity in the satellite industry and is making inroads as a standard architecture for many nano and pico satellite applications. The electrical power system for the cubesat class satellites almost exclusively conforms to a centralized architecture.

This thesis researches the potential of using a distributed architecture for the cubesat power system. There are several key advantages of a distributed architecture that are desirable. Design reuse is one well known advantage and it is exploited almost exclusively in larger spacecraft. However, since the first cubesats were very simplistic in their electrical power system design, custom centralized architectures were initially selected and made sense. As the cubesat standard begins to proliferate, the need to have a non-custom, generic electrical power system design that can be reused over and over again is needed to support the ever increasing design complexities.

To begin the research, an electrical power system survey is discussed that provides insight into the current state-of-the-art in cubesat electrical power system design. Next, an actual cubesat electrical power system design based on the centralized architecture is broken down into its individual components. A complementary design is then created using a distributed architecture. The two designs are analyzed, compared, and contrasted. The results are presented and discussed as part of the research.

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