GWU/NASA ARC Micro-Cathode Arc Thruster PhoneSat Experiment - First Light - (Track 2)
Channel: Samudra Haque
Date: 2013-11-22

Part of NASA Ames Research Center (Center Innovation Fund)  2013 Award to George Washington University, Dept. of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Micropropulsion and Nanotechnology Lab. (GWU) PI: Dr. Michael Keidar (NASA) PI: Elwood Agasid. 

This technology is being incorporated into a 2014 1.5U cubesat space mission by the US Naval Academy. 

Students of the Micro-propulsion and Nanotechnology Laboratory (MpNL) of the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, of George Washington University successfully completed, in August 2013, for the first time ever, a full integration and testing of a prototype 3-channel Micro-Cathode Arc Thruster (µCAT) subsystem, at NASA Ames Research Center (ARC) specifically engineered for the ARC Center Innovation Fund 2013 award project, "Micro-Cathode Arc Thruster PhoneSat Experiment". 

The project was intended to explore the viability of enabling the innovative Google Nexus SmartPhone powered series of small spacecraft, three of which were flown and operated in Space in April 2013 onboard the Antares launcher by Orbital Sciences from Wallops Flight Facility, VA., to have full attitude and orbit correction capabilities.

The project had a unique goal, "... to integrate multiple micro-cathode arc thrusters, under development at George Washington University, with the Phonesat bus avionics to demonstrate commanding of the thrusters for Attitude control and orbit maneuvers." 

A safe, easy to integrate micro-propulsion system was highly desired and expected to further enable the small satellite platform to support an even more diverse array of missions, including inter-planetary, earth observation, proximity operations, communications as well as technology validation. The µCAT features: a low mass, low volume, chemically inert propellant thruster that mitigates the hazards normally associated with chemical reactivity or pressurized gas based systems. The Phonesat team at ARC took the responsibility  to develop an Adroid App to control thrusters and test the integrated system in a vacuum chamber.

MpNL Ph.D student ('14) Samudra Haque, developed the 3-channel  full µCAT subsystem for this experiment comprising: customized low-voltage plasma power processing units, programmable control units with embedded microcontrollers and C++ applications, simplified command/telemetry processing functionality, current/voltage sensors and actuators, and merged the development track with MpNL MS Student ('14) George Teel's advanced miniature Thruster Heads that were being used to demonstrate µCAT subsystems at the 27th Annual AIAA/USU Conference on Small Satellites. 

A composite subsystem, with C++ embedded control application, regulated power modules, serial programming interfaces, PhoneSat interfaces, and voltage/current test points was fabricated at the SpaceShop of ARC, by Samudra and George, for use in a 4-day testing program, with a medium sized vacuum chamber located at the ARC Engineering Evaluation Laboratory (EEL). 

Tests were conducted at the EEL to evaluate the performance and abilities of the system to control one, two, and three microthrusters in various combinations, and to conduct electrical current/voltage and ion current/voltage measurements. The composite system was tested both in air, and in vacuum, and at different operating frequencies. The programming capabilities of the subsystem was demonstrated by changing the impulse firing rate of the triple-set of thrusters by software commands issued by the PhoneSat µCAT control application, and video was used to record the simultaneous firing of all three channels in synchronized manner, despite having different plasma power units. 

April 2024 - For more information from about this past project contact me through the comments on the video or reach out to me at Linked In. 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/samudra-haque-9b605420/