Submission

Project Psiloi

Combat Area Satellite Communications and Third-Party Observation Denial and Control

My name is Curt Walsh. I am an Equipment Engineer at the Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the University of Maryland. I work primarily with high vacuum systems utilized in Device Processing research and development.

I have acquired the necessary knowledge and experience for this challenge through a number of different means. As a veteran of the United States Navy, I have a unique understanding as to the necessity of reliable and easily deployable weapons or communications systems. I have acquired a significant amount of knowledge during my enlistment regarding weapon systems, weapon systems operations, satellite communications, and radar tracking. As an equipment engineer in a physical sciences laboratory, I have an innate understanding as to what it takes to design, build and test a given experimental system. I have worked on a number of aerospace and rocketry projects that have afforded me knowledge specific to those industries. I also have access to certain resources that give me the ability to meet the required 12-24 month flight test mandate of this challenge.

Project Psiloi is a meant to control the level of information that an enemy combatant or questionable ally can access during highly sensitive USSOCOM operations. Prior to any highly classified or covert operations, the Project Psiloi cube sats, also known as TOXAs, can be rapidly deployed to orbits that will coincide with the area of operations. During the operation the, the TOXAs can either jam communications with or disable entirely satellites used by enemy combatants or questionable allies, therefore reducing the chances of the mission being compromised. The TOXAs can be used individually or as a fleet, bringing to bare a significant collective force. Each TOXA can be equipped with either a 50W laser or a 100W, 33 dB antenna/ emitter for jamming purposes. The laser can be used to disable a satellite by rapidly heating a section of its structure. Within the vacuum of space, the range and effectiveness of both configurations is significant.

The size of my proposed solution is designed to fit into the preferred 3U form factor. The specific payload volume is 1.5U, which is 10cm x 10cm x 15cm. The specific payload volume will need to be the maximum 2.7kg to accommodate the required power electronics for the emitters.

The TOXAs of Project Psiloi can be a significant help to the USSOCOM mission manifest. The key to all USSOCOM missions is the ability to maintain a degree secrecy throughout every aspect of a given mission's parameters. There are certain things that can not be planned for or predicted, such as the actions of the human element. There are things, however, for which we can have a greater level of control such as satellites. With the cost of satellites continuing to go down as their abilities continue to increase, more and more countries are gaining the ability to monitor planetary operations. The number of private companies conducting earth monitoring is increasing as well, with there satellites becoming much more numerous than any time in history. High level satellite communication satellites are being utilized more an more as well. By developing a low cost and accurate ability to disrupt these systems even temporarily in a given combat zone, the chances of mission success increase.

The platform accommodation requirements for power are derived from what can be provided by the Tyvak International Endeavor cube sat platform (www.tyvak.com):

Power Capacity
• 11.1 V nominal Li-ion system (possibly 22.2 V system, dependent upon testing results.)
• 60 Whr energy storage
• 80 W power output capability
• 40 W power input capability
• Very low-loss charge/discharge controllers for efficient power transfer
• Parallelizable for expanded capability

Physical Properties
• Mass: 450 grams
• Dimensions: 75 x 70 x 45mm (L x W x H)

Safety & Fault Tolerance
• Recoverable under-voltage, over-voltage and over-current cell-level fault protection
• Output power-on/off hysteresis-band for reliable low-state-of-charge system recovery
• Low battery voltage triggered trickle-charge for safe cell recovery
• Two fault-isolated Li-ion strings
• UL-listed Li-ion cells
• Dual deployment-switch system-power inhibits
• Commandable charge-power disconnect for spacecraft decommissioning

The platform accommodation requirements for thermal control would be derived from what can be provided by the Tyvak International Endeavor cube sat platform (www.tyvak.com). There is additional thermal control for the power system with six cell-distributed 1-W heaters for even thermal distribution with fail-safe heater control circuitry. There may be a need, however, for at least one 10cm x 10cm x 15cm panel within the payload bay to accommodate some kind of heat sink or micro thermal radiator. Testing will be required to determine this need.

The platform accommodation requirements for data transfer rates would be derived from what can be provided by the Tyvak International Endeavor cube sat platform (www.tyvak.com). The Spacecraft Command & Data Handling (C&DH) system will be configured as follows:

Processor Operating System- Tyvak Linux BSP
Processor Architecture - ARM9
Clock Speed- 400 MHz
LINPACK Benchmark- 4 MFLOPS
RAM- 64 MB
Nonvolatile Memory- 32 MB
Phase Change Memory- 1 GB NAND-Flash8 GB SD-card
Power Consumption- < 200mW
Type of Communication- UHF
Frequencies Used- 400-470Mhz, 800-930Mhz
Data Transfer Rates- 1.2-250Kbps

The platform accommodation requirements for data transfer rates (per orbit) would be derived from what can be provided by the Tyvak International Endeavor cube sat platform (www.tyvak.com) . It would also be dependent upon the operational altitude of each orbit as well as available power at a given orbit. That being said, the data transfer rates (per orbit) can not be clearly defined until such information is known.

The platform accommodation requirements for bus stability and attitude control would be derived from what can be provided by the Tyvak International Endeavor cube sat platform (www.tyvak.com). The cube sat will use two Orthogonal Star Trackers for pitch/yaw/roll accuracy of 10/10/80” 1-σ respectfully and an update rate of 6Hz. Field of view for the trackers is 16.8 x 12.6°, with an overall celestial coverage almost 99%. The cube sat will also use a 3-Axis MEMS gyroscope for not only ADS, but also for position stability of the primary emitters/ antennas and primary optics associated gimbaling. Three reaction wheels as well as torque coils are also used for stability control of the main cube sat chassis.

At this time, I can not identify any. The system is designed to utilize as much existing technology as possible in order to allow for rapid development and deployment.

The majority of the this concept can be implemented with current state-of-the-art flight qualified, domestically available components. There will be components such as the primary emitters/ antennas and primary optics and associated gimbaling that will need to be custom fabricated. This, however, does not mean that these items will need to be developed from a completely conceptual level. It is my hope to participate in or possibly get contracted for the construction of this cube sat.

Yes