Advancing Small Spacecraft Technologies With Suborbital Flight Tests

Anh Nguyen, Mary Palmer, Paul De León

September 8, 2021

Community of Practice Webinar Series

NASA Flight Opportunities

https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/flightopportunities/community-of-practice

1

NASA FLIGHT OPPORTUNITIES

www.nasa.gov

NASA Flight Opportunities

Session will start at 10 a.m. PT – Please mute your microphone and turn off your camera

Community of Practice Webinar Series – September 8, 2021

Anh Nguyen, Ph.D., NASA’s Ames Research Center

Mary Palmer, Raven Aerostar

Paul De León, Flight Opportunities

Advancing Small Spacecraft Technologies with Suborbital Flight Tests

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NASA FLIGHT OPPORTUNITIES

Welcome to the Community of Practice Webinar Series!

First, a bit of housekeeping...

• Please mute your microphone and turn off your camera

• Today’s session will be recorded

• Recordings for this and all future session will be posted on the Flight Opportunities 

website

• Please engage!

• Use the chat throughout the session to ask questions

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Advancing Small Spacecraft Technologies With Suborbital Flight Tests

Anh Nguyen, Mary Palmer, Paul De León

September 8, 2021

Community of Practice Webinar Series

NASA Flight Opportunities

https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/flightopportunities/community-of-practice

2

NASA FLIGHT OPPORTUNITIES

Flight Opportunities Mission

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The Flight Opportunities program facilitates rapid 

demonstration of promising technologies for 

space exploration, discovery, and the expansion 

of space commerce through suborbital testing 

with industry flight providers.

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NASA FLIGHT OPPORTUNITIES

Now Open - NASA TechRise Student Challenge

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• For teams of sixth to 12th-grade students to design, build, and launch 

experiments on suborbital rockets and balloon flights during the upcoming 

2021/2022 school year

• Entries due November 3

• For more info on the challenge, proposal requirements, and the upcoming 

virtual field trip: https://www.futureengineers.org/nasatechrise

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Advancing Small Spacecraft Technologies With Suborbital Flight Tests

Anh Nguyen, Mary Palmer, Paul De León

September 8, 2021

Community of Practice Webinar Series

NASA Flight Opportunities

https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/flightopportunities/community-of-practice

3

NASA FLIGHT OPPORTUNITIES

Join us for future Community of Practice webinars!

Interactive Exchange:

Come ask questions and share your 

experience with a panel of veteran Flight 

Opportunities PIs

October 6 at 10–11:30 a.m. PST

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Future webinars

• Webinars are held 1st Wednesday of each 

month at 10 a.m. PT

• Topics will be announced in the Flight 

Opportunities newsletter and website

• Session recordings will be posted on the 

Flight Opportunities website

• Let us know session topics you would like 

to see covered

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NASA FLIGHT OPPORTUNITIES

Today’s Speakers

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Anh Nguyen, Ph.D.

Aerospace Engineer

NASA Ames Research 

Center

Paul De León

Campaign Manager

Flight Opportunities

Mary Palmer

Program Manager

Raven Aerostar

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Advancing Small Spacecraft Technologies With Suborbital Flight Tests

Anh Nguyen, Mary Palmer, Paul De León

September 8, 2021

Community of Practice Webinar Series

NASA Flight Opportunities

https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/flightopportunities/community-of-practice

4

NASA FLIGHT OPPORTUNITIES

www.nasa.gov

NASA Flight Opportunities

Community of Practice

Dr. Anh Nguyen | September 2021

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Stanford & Carnegie Mellon University REx Lab

A. Nguyen, M. Holliday, K. Tracy, Z. Manchester

9/8/2021

PACE V-R3x 

FO Community of Practice

9/14/21 8

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Advancing Small Spacecraft Technologies With Suborbital Flight Tests

Anh Nguyen, Mary Palmer, Paul De León

September 8, 2021

Community of Practice Webinar Series

NASA Flight Opportunities

https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/flightopportunities/community-of-practice

5

Tech Demo Activities

9/14/21 9

• S-band ranging <1 m precision (distances >500 km*)

• Hi-speed S-band cross-link demo (distances >10 km*)

• Coordinated radiation measurements

• Relative swarm topology recovery

*link budget dependent

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Project Summary

9/14/21 10

V-R3x 

Orbital Launch

1/24/2021

V-R3x-S 

Suborbital Flight Campaign

3/11/2021

V-R3x

ATP

1/6/2020

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Advancing Small Spacecraft Technologies With Suborbital Flight Tests

Anh Nguyen, Mary Palmer, Paul De León

September 8, 2021

Community of Practice Webinar Series

NASA Flight Opportunities

https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/flightopportunities/community-of-practice

6

Orbital vs Suborbital Comparison

Description V-R3x Orbital V-R3x-S Suborbital

# Units 3 5 (1 Balloon + 4 Ground)

Launch Date 1/24/2021 3/11/2021

Target Altitude 525 km, SSO 30.48 km (100,000 ft)

Mission Ops 

Duration 6 mo. 2 hrs at float (5 hrstotal)

Requirements

• S-band High Precision Ranging

• S-band High Data Rate Crosslink

• Relative Topology Recovery

• Distributed radiation sensor 

collection

• S-band High Precision Ranging

• S-band High Data Rate Cross-link

Networking Mesh Network w/ 3 nodes Mesh Network w/ 5 nodes

9/14/21 11

NASA: Dominic Hart

V-R3x Orbital

V-R3x Suborbital

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V-R3x Build

9/14/21 12

Brainstorm

12/03/2019

Project Proposal

12/16/2019

PDR/CDR

05/18/2020

EDU

08/31/2020 FM 09/27/2020

Image Credits : NASA

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Advancing Small Spacecraft Technologies With Suborbital Flight Tests

Anh Nguyen, Mary Palmer, Paul De León

September 8, 2021

Community of Practice Webinar Series

NASA Flight Opportunities

https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/flightopportunities/community-of-practice

7

V-R3x Ridge Testing

V-R3x #2

@ Mt. Umunhum

V-R3x #1

9/14/21 13

View from Mt. Hamilton

Mt. Hamilton

Mt. Umunhum

Image Credits : NASA

• UHF link closed

• S-band ranging & link didn’t close 

• Likely due to valley noise

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First Spacecraft Packets Received

9/14/21 14

V-R3x Mobile Ground Station GS Setup

GS Equipment

First V-R3x Decoded Packets!

Max Holliday 

Stanford

Zac Manchester

Carnegie Mellon University

Anh Nguyen

NASA ARC

Downlink RX UHF

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Advancing Small Spacecraft Technologies With Suborbital Flight Tests

Anh Nguyen, Mary Palmer, Paul De León

September 8, 2021

Community of Practice Webinar Series

NASA Flight Opportunities

https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/flightopportunities/community-of-practice

8

V-R3x-S Balloon Campaign

9/14/21 15

AN

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Flight path

V-R3x Flight Unit (x1)

Icon Legend

RIC Launch Site

Float Target 100,000 ft (~30 km)

V-R3x Balloon Flight Unit will perform RF highspeed swarm communication and ranging 

with the ground nodes along the flight path

Simulation of on-orbit cross-links:

• S-band 2223.6 MHz Up/Down

• LoRa 915.6 MHz Up/Down

V-R3x Ground Units (x4)

Balloon Demo Overview

Balloon

Raven Flight Control Unit (FCU)

FCU 

Transponder

V-R3x Balloon Unit

9/14/21

AN

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Advancing Small Spacecraft Technologies With Suborbital Flight Tests

Anh Nguyen, Mary Palmer, Paul De León

September 8, 2021

Community of Practice Webinar Series

NASA Flight Opportunities

https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/flightopportunities/community-of-practice

9

V-R3x Balloon Hardware

9/14/21 17

V-R3x Ground Units

V-R3x Balloon Unit

S-band Antenna

UHF Dipole

Antenna

GPS Antenna Power Switch

V-R3x Motherboard 

& Battery Stack

UHF Antenna

S-band Antenna

AN

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2/19/2021 Bracket Pull/Drop Test

9/14/21 18

AN

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Advancing Small Spacecraft Technologies With Suborbital Flight Tests

Anh Nguyen, Mary Palmer, Paul De León

September 8, 2021

Community of Practice Webinar Series

NASA Flight Opportunities

https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/flightopportunities/community-of-practice

10

9/14/21 19

3/3/2021 Field Test/Dress Rehearsal

Photo Credits: Dominc Hart

AN

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3/8/2021 GS Assembly & Checkout

9/14/21 20

AN

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Advancing Small Spacecraft Technologies With Suborbital Flight Tests

Anh Nguyen, Mary Palmer, Paul De León

September 8, 2021

Community of Practice Webinar Series

NASA Flight Opportunities

https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/flightopportunities/community-of-practice

11

3/8/2021 Assembly, Check-out, Indoor EMI/EMC Test

9/14/21 21

AN

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3/8/2021 Indoor EMI/EMC Test

9/14/21 22

Raven Flight 

Control Unit

V-R3x-S 

Balloon PL

AN

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Advancing Small Spacecraft Technologies With Suborbital Flight Tests

Anh Nguyen, Mary Palmer, Paul De León

September 8, 2021

Community of Practice Webinar Series

NASA Flight Opportunities

https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/flightopportunities/community-of-practice

12

3/9/2021 Outdoor EMI/EMC Test, Planning

9/14/21 23

GS 1 GS 2

GS 3

GS 4

Flight Control Unit

V-R3x Payload

AN

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3/10/2021 Planning (Rain/Snow Day)

9/14/21 24

AN

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Advancing Small Spacecraft Technologies With Suborbital Flight Tests

Anh Nguyen, Mary Palmer, Paul De León

September 8, 2021

Community of Practice Webinar Series

NASA Flight Opportunities

https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/flightopportunities/community-of-practice

13

3/11/2021 Site Scouting/Waiting on STA

9/14/21 25

AN

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3/12/2021 Flight Campaign Day

9/14/21 26

AN

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Advancing Small Spacecraft Technologies With Suborbital Flight Tests

Anh Nguyen, Mary Palmer, Paul De León

September 8, 2021

Community of Practice Webinar Series

NASA Flight Opportunities

https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/flightopportunities/community-of-practice

14

3/12/2021 Recovery

9/14/21 27

AN

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3/13/2021 Pick-up & Packing

9/14/21 28

AN

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Advancing Small Spacecraft Technologies With Suborbital Flight Tests

Anh Nguyen, Mary Palmer, Paul De León

September 8, 2021

Community of Practice Webinar Series

NASA Flight Opportunities

https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/flightopportunities/community-of-practice

15

Experiment Summary

• Balloon unit successfully networked with each of the ground units over 

a duration of 5.2 hrs

• Successful mesh networking

• Successful high-speed data transfer S-band and UHF

• No S-band ranging data collected L

• Frequency offsets (EFE’s) collected for all links

• Ranges not calculated

• Successful GPS lock maintained throughout the duration of the flight

9/14/21 29

AN

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Ranging Anomaly – Testing

9/14/21 30

Units SF Bandwidth Ranging 

Distance

Ranging 

Precision

Orbit 10 1600 kHz Short Best

Balloon 10 400 KHz Long Worst

Ridge Testing 10 800 KHz Medium Medium

• Fixed the IRQ routine to check for bit-by-bit 

changes w/ documentation

• Selected new parameters to optimize timing 

and link budget and pick the SF/bandwidth for 

this scenario

• Range test 4/4 – All nominal

• Ridge testing 4/9 – Same anomaly observed

• Implemented firmware fixes

• Ridge testing w/ successful ranging 4/30

4.75 mi / 7.64 km

2.58 mi / 4.15 km

5.67 mi / 9.12 km

DISH

WINDY HILL

MH

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Advancing Small Spacecraft Technologies With Suborbital Flight Tests

Anh Nguyen, Mary Palmer, Paul De León

September 8, 2021

Community of Practice Webinar Series

NASA Flight Opportunities

https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/flightopportunities/community-of-practice

16

Suborbital Lessons Learned

Lessons Learned • Suborbital demonstration before orbital demonstration would have been useful to address bugs

• GPS, UHF, and S-band Link budget better than expected for terrestrial demo

• High speed comm verified hardware limits

• Expected temperatures very cold

• Gather more data if possible of env. (temp, acceleration, etc.)

• Always get TSA paperwork; carry-on hardware does not fit in overhead cabins of older regional planes

• Check hardware end-of-day; go through debug exercise with everyone during campaign

• Stay on top of your STA

• Submit with plenty of margin

• Raven has a lot of knowledge, materials, and expertise – lean on them • Mechanical, Thermal, and Flight patterns

• Environment at Raven dustier/drier than expected

• Achievements:

• Demo’d meshed networking and debugged ranging

• Valuable lessons learned for future comm mesh networking suborbital experiments

9/14/21 31

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PACE Global Lessons Learned

• Suborbital demonstration provides critical data and lessons learned to 

increase mission success for orbital demonstrations

• Ability to rapidly demonstrate this technology could not be done 

without University partners and PyCubed architecture

• Lessons learned from rapid V-R3x demo can enable future rapid 

follow-on missions (<12 mo.) 

• COVID-19 impacts severely compressed schedule

• RFA is always an issue

• V-R3x provided many lessons learned and valuable experiences for 

shaping of PACE series of mission on how to technically and logistically 

bridge FO to SST opportunities

9/14/21 32

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Advancing Small Spacecraft Technologies With Suborbital Flight Tests

Anh Nguyen, Mary Palmer, Paul De León

September 8, 2021

Community of Practice Webinar Series

NASA Flight Opportunities

https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/flightopportunities/community-of-practice

17

NASA FLIGHT OPPORTUNITIES

www.nasa.gov

NASA Flight Opportunities

Community of Practice

Mary Palmer | September 2021

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RAVEN AEROSTAR

FLIGHT OPPORTUNITIES COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE

© 2016 Raven Industries, Inc.

Unrestricted

Balloon Volume 64,000 ft3 Mission specific

System Duration 30+ days 1-2 days

Maximum Altitude 50-75 kft Up to 130,000 ft

Maneuver Range ≤20,000 ft Mission specific

User Payload Weight ≤125 lbs

≤125lbs standard 

(higher weights possible w/ 

custom gondola)

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Advancing Small Spacecraft Technologies With Suborbital Flight Tests

Anh Nguyen, Mary Palmer, Paul De León

September 8, 2021

Community of Practice Webinar Series

NASA Flight Opportunities

https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/flightopportunities/community-of-practice

18

RAVEN AEROSTAR

FLIGHT OPPORTUNITIES COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE

© 2016 Raven Industries, Inc.

Unrestricted

Payload Services

User Payload Power: Up to 2400Wh; 4 switchable +28V rails (600W 

peak)

LOS Communications S-Band – 1-40Mbps (range dependent)

BLOS Communications Iridium – intermittent, short burst data

Launch Capability Land/Marine

Payload Data Services Real-time GPS/INS Data, High Rate C2, 

Mission Planning FAA Coordination, Range Safety, Flight Modeling

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NASA FLIGHT OPPORTUNITIES

36 www.nasa.gov

Thank you! 

Flight Opportunities website: 

http://nasa.gov/flightopportunities

Contact us:

NASA-FlightOpportunities@mail.nasa.gov

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