Session
Session VII: Educational Programs - Research & Academia
Location
Salt Palace Convention Center, Salt Lake City, UT
Abstract
Recent advances in the size, weight, and power (SWaP) requirements for space-based sensing have dramatically increased the demand for high-bandwidth downlink. However, high data rate RF transceivers still pose significant SWaP and cost restrictions, especially for university-class CubeSat missions. Optical communication may provide a solution to this challenge, enabling data transmission with order-of-magnitude rate increases over RF while being both secure and SWaP-efficient. The Polarization-modUlated Laser Satellite Experiment (PULSE-A) is a University of Chicago mission to demonstrate optical downlink at a data rate of up to 10 Mbps using circular polarization shift keying (CPolSK). PULSE-A comprises a <1.5U Optical Transmission Terminal, 3U CubeSat Bus, Optical Ground Station (OGS) employing an amateur telescope, and RF Ground Station (RFGS), all of which are being designed and integrated by a team of over 60 undergraduate students. The mission objective is threefold: (1) to provide hands-on educational experiences for undergraduate students, (2) to make hardware for optical communication systems more accessible via open-source design, and (3) to explore the viability and potential advantages of using CPolSK for optical downlink.
PULSE-A serves an essential educational purpose by providing University of Chicago students with the opportunity to design, build, test, and fly a spacecraft. All engineering and leadership roles on the PULSE-A Team are filled by undergraduate students from the University of Chicago Space Program (UCSP), the University’s only Registered Student Organization dedicated to engaging students in aerospace engineering projects. UCSP fulfills a unique role at the University given the absence of any conventional mechanical, electrical, or aerospace engineering programs. PULSE-A is the primary opportunity for the University of Chicago’s undergraduate students to learn and apply skills in these engineering fields, as the large majority of the mission’s hardware and software is being developed in-house. With over 100 students having worked on the mission since UCSP’s inception, PULSE-A has had a profound impact on the University’s student body. In this work, we present an overview of the mission, and we describe the PULSE-A Team’s learning-oriented approach to program management and engineering. We especially emphasize the importance of student leadership in PULSE-A’s development process and the resulting benefits for the University of Chicago community. We also highlight takeaways from the experience of founding and operating an undergraduate student-led CubeSat program, particularly regarding team organization, knowledge transfer, and collaborative learning in the context of limited prior institutional knowledge on small satellites.
Document Type
Event
PULSE-A Mission Overview: Optical Communications for Undergraduate Students
Salt Palace Convention Center, Salt Lake City, UT
Recent advances in the size, weight, and power (SWaP) requirements for space-based sensing have dramatically increased the demand for high-bandwidth downlink. However, high data rate RF transceivers still pose significant SWaP and cost restrictions, especially for university-class CubeSat missions. Optical communication may provide a solution to this challenge, enabling data transmission with order-of-magnitude rate increases over RF while being both secure and SWaP-efficient. The Polarization-modUlated Laser Satellite Experiment (PULSE-A) is a University of Chicago mission to demonstrate optical downlink at a data rate of up to 10 Mbps using circular polarization shift keying (CPolSK). PULSE-A comprises a <1.5U Optical Transmission Terminal, 3U CubeSat Bus, Optical Ground Station (OGS) employing an amateur telescope, and RF Ground Station (RFGS), all of which are being designed and integrated by a team of over 60 undergraduate students. The mission objective is threefold: (1) to provide hands-on educational experiences for undergraduate students, (2) to make hardware for optical communication systems more accessible via open-source design, and (3) to explore the viability and potential advantages of using CPolSK for optical downlink.
PULSE-A serves an essential educational purpose by providing University of Chicago students with the opportunity to design, build, test, and fly a spacecraft. All engineering and leadership roles on the PULSE-A Team are filled by undergraduate students from the University of Chicago Space Program (UCSP), the University’s only Registered Student Organization dedicated to engaging students in aerospace engineering projects. UCSP fulfills a unique role at the University given the absence of any conventional mechanical, electrical, or aerospace engineering programs. PULSE-A is the primary opportunity for the University of Chicago’s undergraduate students to learn and apply skills in these engineering fields, as the large majority of the mission’s hardware and software is being developed in-house. With over 100 students having worked on the mission since UCSP’s inception, PULSE-A has had a profound impact on the University’s student body. In this work, we present an overview of the mission, and we describe the PULSE-A Team’s learning-oriented approach to program management and engineering. We especially emphasize the importance of student leadership in PULSE-A’s development process and the resulting benefits for the University of Chicago community. We also highlight takeaways from the experience of founding and operating an undergraduate student-led CubeSat program, particularly regarding team organization, knowledge transfer, and collaborative learning in the context of limited prior institutional knowledge on small satellites.
