TRAINING THE NEXT GENERATION OF SPACE ENGINEERS
The space industry is experiencing a major shift in how it does business, with newer players like SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Virgin Orbit aiming to capitalize on a wide range of markets and ambitious projects. The result is an explosion of growth within the commercial sector, allowing for easier and cheaper access to space than ever before. Commercial space is forecasted to be a trillion-dollar industry by the end of the decade1 with thousands of satellites in low Earth orbit providing valuable data to manage the environment, enabling communication connectivity to all and offering the prospect of new applications to improve the lives of people across the globe.
But two questions loom large. Where will the tens of thousands of engineers, technologists, and scientists come from to meet the burgeoning needs of tomorrow’s space industry? And how can we best motivate, train, and prepare the next generation of talent for the challenges that lie ahead?
NASA’s CubeSat Launch Initiative
NASA, its contractors, and commercial space startups “face significant workforce challenges that can hinder their ability to deliver projects in a cost-effective and timely manner,” according to a 2020 Government Accountability Office (GAO) report. The review found a nationwide shortage of skilled workers in science, technology, and engineering disciplines to fuel current and future projects.
To help stem the tide, NASA developed the Undergraduate Student Instrument Project (USIP), a unique, multiyear program exposing undergrads to space projects. Students of accredited educational institutions can obtain hands-on flight hardware development experience and gain valuable skills in designing, building, and operating research satellites through the initiative.
In the not-too-distant past, all satellite designs started from a clean sheet of paper—there were no standards. Then, about 20 years ago, a new concept was born: modularity. CubeSats are constructed from a standardized block of cubes, like Legos. The cubes are just the small satellite’s architecture structure. Depending on specific mission requirements, any combination of components can exist inside a cube.
Each cube makes up 1 U (1 unit) and is approximately 3.9" × 3.9" × 4" (10 cm × 10 cm × 11 cm) with an internal volume of a liter. Cubes can be 1 U to 12 U3 in volume and stacked to make different mechanical structures (or shapes). The smallest CubeSats typically weigh 1.3 kg (3 lb) and the largest about 24 kg (53 lb) and are part of a class of research spacecraft called nanosatellites.
The Lowell Center for Space Science and Technology
At the UMass Lowell Center for Space Science and Technology, a team of undergraduate students designed, built, and tested a miniature, low cost satellite called SPACE HAUC2 and sent it on a year-long mission orbiting Earth.
The satellite comprises three of NASA’s modular CubeSat units stacked together and is approximately one-third the size of a desktop computer. Now that SPACE HAUC is in orbit, the tiny satellite is poised to send back valuable data and images of the sun via an X-band communication phased array antenna.
With a focus on educational excellence and developing a pipeline of high quality talent, ADI partnered with the University of Massachusetts Lowell to provide students with advanced technology, domain expertise, and other support needed to help make this real-world, hands-on learning experience possible.
“A looming shortage of aerospace engineers could slow the growth of the space industry. A continuous pipeline of a highly trained and motivated workforce is needed to meet the challenges of tomorrow.”Supriya Chakrabarti, Ph.D.
Director of the Lowell Center for Space Science and Technology, UMass Lowell
UMass Lowell Undergrads Develop SPACE HAUC Satellite
Under the direction of Principal Investigator (PI) Supriya Chakrabarti, Ph.D., professor of physics at the Lowell Center for Space Science and Technology (LoCSST), UMass Lowell submitted a proposal to NASA for the SPACE HAUC CubeSat mission in the fall of 2015.
“We could have proposed anything, but the students challenged themselves to do the most,” commented Chakrabarti. “We proposed a program to build a whole satellite and demonstrate a new technology in space.”
A team of about 100 undergraduate students participated in the Cube Satellite project over the course of more than five years. The mission focused on demonstrating a student-developed high data rate (~50 Mbps) X-band communication system with beam steering capability using a phased array antenna.
“We’re preparing students for the future and developing a pipeline of quality talent for the space industry,” said Chakrabarti. “The 10 to 20 who are fully committed and engaged will never have to look for a job—they’re doing the kind of work that is rare. How many undergrads can say, ‘I built a satellite that flew in space’?”
Analog Devices Guides SPACE HAUC Development
Funded by NASA, the SPACE HAUC team also leveraged a longstanding partnership between Analog Devices and UMass Lowell Engineering to source components, guidance, and expertise from ADI’s industry veterans. The team received significant technical guidance from ADI’s Aerospace, Defense, and RF Products department, including Eamon Nash (Product Applications Engineer Director) and Bob Broughton (Electronics Design Engineer Director).
The Space HAUC team met weekly with Nash and others from ADI’s phased array group. “If Analog Devices hadn’t provided engineering help, we couldn’t have done this,” said Prof. Chakrabarti. “ADI engineers acted as teachers for our research, and we worked closely with ADI to design our X-band communication system.”
Added Nash, “They were drinking from a fire hose. Getting them to where they needed to be technically, required commitment.”
ADI also furnished software and state-of-the-art hardware, including the transceivers, the RF antenna, and power management, which converts the battery power to the correct voltage and noise level for all of SPACE HAUC’s many integrated circuits.
“We incorporated the ADI chipsets, and with their oversight, designed our own communication system,” said Chakrabarti. “It was initially spec’d out to be approximately six inches tall. After two iterations working with ADI, it’s now half an inch tall—and we think we could have made it even smaller.”
Students Set the Bar High
Working with ADI and its domain experts, the SPACE HAUC team developed the electronics, allowing the system to form a beam and then steer it to a receiver on Earth. With beam steering capability, the spacecraft does not need to be directly overhead to complete a link, offering the benefit of increased link time.
“I got involved in the CubeSat project during my first year at Lowell,” said Sanjeev Mehta, Systems Engineer. “When I got closer to graduation, I became more interested in the RF communications system. I worked with the SPACE HAUC team and with Analog Devices to design it. Students then laid out the boards and built it. We went through two sets of iterations before we finally flew a version.”
The SPACE HAUC team did not settle for the slower, easier to implement, and more commonly used S-band. They set their goal on the more sophisticated and challenging X-band phased array communications system, featuring 10 times more data throughput, low latency, uninterrupted communication, and cross-link and downlink capabilities.
“We’re trailblazers,” said Chakrabarti. “X-band phased array hasn’t been used before for this size CubeSat.”
ADI provided the electronic components for the on-board phased array system, including a 4 × 4 element (equal to 16 antennas) for the radio. The system transmits data up to 61.44 Mbps with a ≤5° beam steering error. ADI also furnished components for the power supply and the transceiver.
Go for Launch
When it’s time to launch, NASA provides opportunities and low-cost pathways for the small CubeSat payloads to piggyback on larger missions that have excess capacity. The SPACE HAUC CubeSat was launched on August 29, 2021, aboard SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket packed with cargo and supplies for the crew living on board the International Space Station (ISS). On October 11, 2021, an astronaut guiding a robotic arm deployed the UMass Lowell nanosatellite from ISS to space.
“SPACE HAUC is a great success giving undergraduates hands-on experience with a space mission—a very sophisticated experiment on a shoestring budget,” said Chakrabarti. “It was like building an airplane while you’re flying in it. Not only have we created a new curriculum, but also, in the incoming fall, UMass Lowell will be offering a Ph.D. program in aerospace engineering.”
Communication Complications
The SPACE HAUC team is currently using an ultra-high frequency (UHF) backup to communicate with the satellite while awaiting X-band frequency licensing approval from the FCC. The team is attempting to both send and receive UHF communications via a 1.7 m uplink antenna located on campus. However, using the same set of electronics for both the uplink and downlink is resulting in some interference, and they have not been able to connect to the satellite consistently.
“The satellite does not talk to us unless we talk to it—like in the game Marco Polo,” said Chakrabarti. “It’s called retro directive communications. So far, we haven’t been able to decode the conversation with the satellite. To meet the challenge, we’re upgrading our communication transmitter and receiver. Once the interference issue is solved, we are hoping to get our FCC license so we can communicate at a much higher data rate using the X-band phased array system.”
To alleviate the noise, the SPACE HAUC team is now separating the send and receive functions, using the 1.7 m antenna for the uplink and a smaller, separate receiver system to help identify the source of the interference.
Chakrabarti said the eventual goal is to use the X-band system for both uplink and downlink. Following FCC licensing approval, the team plans to transmit X-band downlink data from the satellite to an 18 m dish at Haystack Observatory ground station receiver, 30 miles from the UMass Lowell campus.
“Unexpected things always happen; otherwise, it wouldn’t be called research,” said Chakrabarti. “We’ve designed and built things in a certain way that’s currently not working optimally. So what do we do? We change.”
ADI and UMass Lowell: Partners in Education
UMass Lowell and ADI are collaborating to help educate and prepare tomorrow’s space engineers.
“We want to cultivate talented professionals for the aerospace and defense industry and help fund curriculum development at UMass Lowell,” said Bryan Goldstein, Vice President, Aerospace and Defense Group. Goldstein is also a member of the industrial board of advisors for Lowell’s School of Engineering.
As the aerospace industry continues to grow rapidly, ADI and UMass Lowell are partnering in various ways to meet the need for skilled engineers to design and build innovative technologies. For example, an innovative advanced education program has been established between ADI’s Aerospace and Defense Business Unit and UMass Lowell, offering a fully funded master’s degree. The Master’s Fellowship Program provides an accelerated path for ADI’s employees to pursue master’s degrees in electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, or computer science. Participants split their 40 hour work week between work and studies, with ADI fully covering the cost of the master’s degree.
“The new program expands on the university’s longstanding collaboration with Analog Devices, which includes a robust research alliance with the company and work with the university’s Career and Co-op Center to provide full-time jobs, co-op experience, and internships to students,” said Sandhya Balasubramanian, UMass Lowell Assistant Dean of Academic and Corporate Program Development.
“We receive a tremendous amount of support from Analog Devices,” said Prof. Chakrabarti. “They are a continuing contributor to the university on many levels. By helping to foster the next generation of great engineers, we are making an impact on science, driving innovation, and forwarding humanity.”
Sources
1 IBM
2 Science Program Around Communication Engineering with High Achieving Undergraduate Cadres (SPACE HAUC)
3 Some cubes are composed of 27 U
