This is a contract award to The Leland Stanford Junior University (Stanford University) by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to develop and implement an angles-only relative navigation system for nanosatellites or CubeSats. The objective is to create an efficient formulation of the angles-only navigation problem consistent with the performance constraints of commercially available, space-capable hardware, develop the software implementation, and integrate it with a...
This federal contract was awarded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Shared Services Center to The Leland Stanford Junior University (doing business as Stanford University), a private research university located in Stanford, California. The $158,775.60 contract is for the development of an autonomous impulsive maneuver planner for relative orbit reconfiguration of spacecraft in formation flying missions. The work aims to create computationally efficient algorithms that...
This federal contract award to The Leland Stanford Junior University (Stanford University) supports the development of guidance and control algorithms for real-time maneuver planning and execution of spacecraft formations using low-thrust control. The research aims to fuse the technologies of formation flying, electric propulsion, and autonomy to enable future space missions across a range of orbital regimes, including Earth observation, satellite servicing, space telescopes, and gravitational...
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has awarded a $240,982.24 grant to The Leland Stanford Junior University, also known as Stanford University, for research related to the coordination and control of multiple spacecraft for future NASA missions. The grant does not have a set-aside designation. Stanford University, a private non-profit research university, will provide research and development services to NASA, focusing on methods for navigating, controlling, and...
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) awarded a $246,131.14 training grant contract to the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Office of Research Administration to develop ion thrusters for CubeSat spacecraft. CubeSats are a promising platform for future NASA exploration and science missions, but currently lack the high propulsion required. This non-set-aside contract, awarded on August 1, 2017, will provide advanced propulsion capabilities to enable high-delta-V...
This federal contract award, valued at $649,892.92, was granted to The Leland Stanford Junior University (Stanford University) by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for the development of an innovative computational framework for the simulation of supersonic parachute inflation dynamics. The framework utilizes an Eulerian setting for two-way coupled fluid-structure interaction computations, enabling robust simulations of large structural motions, deformations, and...
The Leland Stanford Junior University (Stanford University) was awarded a $1,763,822 cooperative agreement (Contract #80NSSC18M0058) by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to design, develop, and validate the Autonomous Nanosatellite Swarming Subsystem (ANS). ANS is an integrated miniaturized dynamics, guidance, navigation, and control unit that enables multiple nanosatellites to act together as a single large spacecraft through precision relative navigation and low-thrust...
This federal contract award, with ID NNX15AP67H, was issued by the Shared Services Center to The Leland Stanford Junior University (Stanford University) to conduct research on robust motion planning algorithms for autonomous spacecraft. The $288,409.20 award aims to develop real-time, risk-aware motion planning techniques that can navigate dynamic, cluttered environments while providing safety guarantees. The research builds on Stanford's work on sampling-based algorithms and chance...
This federal contract was awarded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Shared Services Center to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on August 1, 2018. The $314,918.66 training grant project is focused on investigating the use of electrospray thrusters for guidance and control of microsatellites, such as CubeSats. The research aims to develop a propulsion system with electrospray thrusters that can provide both primary propulsion and attitude control for a...
This federal contract award, valued at $252,000.00, was granted by the Shared Services Center of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to The Leland Stanford Junior University, a prestigious private research institution. The contract is a grant for research focused on advancing robotics and autonomy capabilities to enable more rich scientific understanding for planetary missions. This aligns with NASA's objectives to push the boundaries of space exploration through...
This federal contract award to The Leland Stanford Junior University (Stanford University) is for the development of a methodology to use aerodynamic torque to desaturate reaction wheels on CubeSat platforms. CubeSats are a common small satellite design, and this contract aims to address the challenge of reaction wheel saturation, which can lead to a loss of control for CubeSat missions. The proposed approach leverages aerodynamic forces in low-Earth orbit to periodically reorient the CubeSat and desaturate the reaction wheels, rather than relying on magnetic torquers which consume valuable volume and mass on the limited CubeSat platform. This $296,422.45 contract, awarded by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), is a training grant and does not have a set-aside designation. The contract builds upon Stanford University's expertise in spacecraft attitude control and aims to enable CubeSat missions with enhanced capabilities by optimizing the use of limited resources.