Academic literature on the topic 'Cal Poly CubeSat Laboratory'

Microgrids-miniature versions of the electrical grid are becoming increasingly more popular as advancements in technologies, renewable energy mandates, and decreased costs drive communities to adopt them. The modern microgrid has capabilities of generating, distributing, and regulating the flow of electricity, capable of operating in both grid-connected and islanded (disconnected) conditions. This paper utilizes ETAP software in the analysis, simulation, and development of a lab-scale microgrid located at Cal Poly State University. Microprocessor-based relays are heavily utilized in both the ETAP model and hardware implementation of the system. Three case studies were studied and simulated to investigate electric power system load flow analysis of the Cal Poly microgrid. Results were compared against hardware test measurements and showed overall agreement. Slight discrepancies were observed in the simulation results due mainly to the non-ideality of actual hardware components and lab equipment.

We are developing an on-line guide to introduce biology students to the native plants of the Cal Poly campus. It will be used prior to field laboratory exercises, and as a reinforcement after field study. It presents reference information in an interactive and nonlinear manner which encourages students to pursue information in the way that is most interesting to them. The guide is organized by a very simple key that divides plants according to habit (trees, shrubs, vines, grasses, forbs). This simple approach is possible because the guide includes only the 30 common species that students must recognize to do plant sampling exercises. Each species has a screen that displays photographs, line drawings, and a nontechnical narrative. This guide displays the appearance of plants in all seasons, and will be available at all times as a web site. It is particularly useful when laboratories meet in inclement weather or at night. As a web site, it displays the native flora of the Cal Poly campus to the world. The guide was relatively easy to construct with common multimedia equipment. The same approach could be readily employed by any educational program that repeatedly uses the same field site.

Abstract This study measured the radiant power (mW), irradiance (mW/cm2) and emission spectra (mW/cm2/nm) of 22 new, or almost new, light curing units (LCUs): - Alt Lux II, BioLux Standard, Bluephase G2, Curing Light XL 3000, Demetron LC, DX Turbo LED 1200, EC450, EC500, Emitter C, Emitter D, KON-LUX, LED 3M ESPE, Led Lux II, Optilight Color, Optilight Max, Optilux 501, Poly Wireless, Radii cal, Radii plus, TL-01, VALO Cordless. These LCUs were either monowave or multiple peak light emitting diode (LED) units or quartz-tungsten-halogen LCUs used in anterior and posterior teeth. The radiant power emitted by the LCUs was measured by a laboratory grade laser power meter. The tip area (cm²) of the LCUs was measured and used to calculate the irradiance from the measured radiant power source. The MARC-Patient Simulator (MARC-PS) with a laboratory grade spectrometer (USB4000, Ocean Optics) was used to measure the irradiance and emission spectrum from each LCU three times at the sensor located on the facial of the maxillary central incisors and then separately at the occlusal of a maxillary second molar. The minimum acceptable irradiance level was set as 500 mW/cm2. Irradiance data was analyzed using two-way ANOVA and the radiant power data was analyzed by one-way ANOVA followed by Tukey test (a=0.05). In general, the irradiance was reduced at the molar tooth for most LCUs. Only the Valo, Bluephase G2 and Radii Plus delivered an irradiance similar to the anterior and posterior sensors greater than 500 mW/cm2. KON-LUX, Altlux II, Biolux Standard, TL-01, Optilux 501, DX Turbo LED 1200 LCUs delivered lower irradiance values than the recommended one used in molar region, KON-LUX and Altlux II LCUs used at the maxillary incisors. Bluephase G2 and Optilight Max delivered the highest radiant power and KON-LUX, Altlux II and Biolux Standard delivered the lowest power. The emission spectrum from the various monowave LED LCUs varied greatly. The multi-peak LCUs delivered similar emission spectra to both sensors.

Context: Tertiary Trauma Survey is an important tool for the detection of missed injury, and some trauma units have created their protocol for tertiary trauma surveys to decrease the incidence of missed injuries in trauma patients. Aim: This study aims to assess nurses' performance regarding tertiary Survey and Poly-trauma patients’ outcome. Methods: Descriptive exploratory design utilized to achieve the aim of the study. A convenient sample of all available nurs- es (50 nurses) who are working in the intensive care unit at the emergency hospital affiliated to Ain Shams University Hos- pitals. A purposeful sample composed of (50) adult patients diagnosed as poly-trauma patients recruited from the same units. Data obtained through three main tools; Self-administered questionnaire for nurses, nurses practice observational checklist and clinical outcome record for patients. Results: Nurses under study had an unsatisfactory level of knowledge and practice regarding tertiary trauma survey (44%&32%) respectively. There was a highly statistically significant positive correlation between the total level of knowledge and practice. There was the difference between injury severity score and laboratory, hemodynamic status, physi- cal assessment and radiological findings of polytrauma patients on admission and after 24 hours. Conclusion: Less than half and less than one-third of the nurses under study had an unsatisfactory level of knowledge and practice respectively, regarding tertiary trauma survey. There was highly statistically significant positive correlation between the total level of knowledge and total level practice. Polytrauma patients' outcome, revealed a statistically significant differ- ence between injury severity score, hemodynamic status, physical assessment and radiological findings in polytrauma pa- tients on admission and after 24 hours. Recommendations: Further research is needed to follow the patients' outcome and missed injury. Replication of the current study on larger probability sample is recommended to achieve generalization of the result. Tailored Training courses are needed for nurses to improve unsatisfactory knowledge and practices regarding tertiary trauma survey- integrated studies with the emergency medical team to communicate patients' outcome research findings.

The Cal Poly CubeSat Laboratory (CPCL) is currently facing unprecedented engineering challenges—both technically and programmatically—due to the increasing cost and complexity of CubeSat flight missions. In responding to recent RFPs, the CPCL has been forced to find commercially available solutions to entire mission critical spacecraft subsystems such as propulsion and attitude determination & control, because currently no in-house options exist for consideration. The commercially available solutions for these subsystems are often extremely expensive and sometimes provide excessively good performance with respect to mission requirements. Furthermore, use of entire commercial subsystems detracts from the hands-on learning objectives of the CPCL by removing engineering responsibility from students. Therefore, if these particular subsystems can be designed, tested, and integrated in-house at Cal Poly, the result would be twofold: 1) the space of missions supportable by the CPCL under tight budget constraints will grow, and 2) students will be provided with unique, hands-on guidance, navigation, and control learning opportunities. In this thesis, the CPCL’s attitude determination and control system design and analysis toolkit is significantly improved to support in-house ADCS development. The toolkit—including the improvements presented in this work—is then used to complete the existing, partially complete CPCL ADCS design. To fill in missing gaps, particular emphasis is placed on guidance and control algorithm design and selection of attitude actuators. Simulation results show that the completed design is competitive for use in a large class of small satellite missions for which pointing accuracy requirements are on the order of a few degrees.

With the rise of CubeSats and the demonstration of their many space applications, there is interest in interplanetary CubeSats to act for example as scientific investigations or communications relays. In line with the increasing demand for this class of small satellites, the Cal Poly CubeSat Lab (CPCL) seeks to develop a bus that could support an interplanetary science payload. To facilitate this, a mission concept to conduct science of the moons of Mars, Phobos and Deimos, is investigated by determining the mission needs for a CubeSat in a Phobos-Deimos cycler orbit through the development of a baseline design to meet mission objectives. This baseline design is then compared by subsystem to CPCL’s current capabilities to identify technology, facility, and knowledge gaps and recommend a path forward to close them. The resulting baseline design is a 16U bus capable of transferring from an initial low Mars orbit to a Phobos-Deimos cycler orbit using a combined chemical and electric propulsion system. The bus is designed for a 3.5 year mission lifetime collecting radiation data and images, utilizing a relay architecture to downlink payload data. Estimates for mass, volume, and power available for an additional payload are up to 2.3 kg in ~4U with power consumption up to 13 to 38 W. This baseline requires further iteration due to non-closure of the thermal protection subsystem and improvement of other subsystems but serves as a starting point for exploration into CPCL’s next steps in becoming an interplanetary bus provider. Major subsystem areas identified for hardware performance improvement within CPCL are propulsion, communications, power, and mechanisms.

In this thesis, the development of a structure for use in an educational CubeSat kit is explored. The potential uses of this kit include augmenting existing curricula with aspects of hands on learning, developing new ways of training students on proper space systems engineering practices, and overall contributing to academic capacity building at Cal Poly and its collaborators. The design improves on existing CubeSat kit structures by increasing accessibility to internal components by implementing a modular backplane system, as well as adding the ability to be environmentally tested. Manufacturing of the structure is completed with both additive (Fused Deposition Modeling with ABS polymer and Selective Laser Melting with AlSi10Mg metal) and subtractive (milling with Al-6061) technologies. Modal, harmonic, and random vibration analyses and tests are done to ensure the structure passes vibration testing qualification loads, as outlined by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s General Environmental Standards. Successful testing of the structure, defined as deforming less than 0.5 millimeters and maintaining a factor of safety above 2, is achieved with all materials of interest. Thus, the structure becomes the first publicly available CubeSat kit designed to survive environmental testing. Achieving this goal with a structure made of the cheap, widely available material ABS showcases the potential usability of 3D-printed polymers in CubeSat structures.

The Naval Postgraduate School is currently developing their first CubeSat, the Solar Cell Array Tester CubeSat, or NPS-SCAT. Launching a CubeSat, such as NPS-SCAT, requires environmental testing to ensure not only the success of the mission, but also the safety of other CubeSats housed in the same deployer. This thesis will address the development of CubeSat vibration testing methodology at NPS, including subsystem testing, engineering unit qualification, and flight unit testing. In addition, the new Cal Poly CubeSat Test POD Mk III will be introduced and evaluated based upon comparison with the Poly Picosatellite Orbital Deployer (P-POD). Using examples from the development of NPS-SCAT and test data from Cal Poly’s Test POD Mk III and P-POD, the current CubeSat testing methodology will be verified and an improved method for NPS CubeSat subsystem testing will be presented.

Currently, the CubeSat spacecraft is predominantly used for missions at Low- Earth Orbit (LEO). There are various limitations to expanding past that range, one of the major ones being the lack of sufficient radiation shielding on the Poly-Picosatellite Orbital Deployer (P-POD). The P-POD attaches to a launch vehicle transporting a primary spacecraft and takes the CubeSats out into their orbit. As the demand for interplanetary exploration grows, there is an equal increase in interest in sending CubeSats further out past their current regime. In a collaboration with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), students from the Cal Poly CubeSat program worked on a preliminary design of an interplanetary CubeSat deployer, the Poly-Picosatellite Deep Space Deployer (PDSD). Radiation concerns were mitigated in a very basic manner, by simply increasing the thickness of the deployer wall panels. While this provided a preliminary idea for improved radiation shielding, full analysis was not conducted to determine what changes to the current P-POD are necessary to make it sufficiently radiation hardened for interplanetary travel. This thesis develops a tool that can be used to further analyze the radiation environment concerns that come up with interplanetary travel. This tool is the connection between any geometry modeled in CAD software and the radiation tool OLTARIS (On- Page iv Line Tool for the Assessment of Radiation In Space). It reads in the CAD file and converts it into MATLAB, at which point it can then perform ray-tracing analysis to get a thickness distribution at any user-defined target points. This thickness distribution file is uploaded to OLTARIS for radiation analysis of the user geometry. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the tool, the radiation environment that a CubeSat sees inside of the current P-POD is characterized to create a radiation map that CubeSat developers can use to better design their satellites. Cases were run to determine the radiation in a low altitude orbit compared to a high altitude orbit, as well as a Europa mission. For the LEO trajectory, doses were seen at levels of 102 mGy, while the GEO trajectory showed results at one order of magnitude lower. Electronics inside the P-POD can survive these doses with the current design, confirming that Earth orbits are safe for CubeSats. The Europa- Jovian Tour mission showed results on a higher scale of 107 mGy, which is too high for electronics in the P-POD. Additional cases at double the original thickness and 100 times the original thickness resulted in dose levels at orders of about 107 and 104 mGy respectively. This gives a scale to work off for a “worst case” scenario and provides a path forward to modifying the shielding on deployers for interplanetary missions. Further analysis is required since increasing the existing P-POD thickness by 100 times is unfeasible from both size and mass perspectives. Ultimately, the end result is that the current P-POD standard does not work too far outside of Earth orbits. Radiation-based changes in the design, materials, and overall shielding of the P- POD need to be made before CubeSats can feasibly perform interplanetary missions.

Following the successful launch of CP3 and CP4, the PolySat team noticed an unreliable uplink to both satellites. A significant problem with the PolySat COMM system is poor receive sensitivity of the communications system. Efforts have been made to improve the uplink margin, but without proper characterization of the receiver sensitivity, the problem cannot be fully addressed. By developing an accurate method of measuring receive sensitivity, a methodical approach can be used to properly diagnose the communication system and link budget. Two revisions of the PolySat COMM system will be measured and compared. An in-depth study of the PolySat COMM system will be performed, providing an interesting look at possible causes of the inconsistent uplink and methods of improving the COMM system. For future bus development, this test setup can be used to accurately measure the receive sensitivity.

Over the past two years, we have conducted two experimental test series aimed at examining typical performance of gasoline V-twin engines in the 25 hp class, and the suitability of assumed mechanical efficiency in correcting observed measurements. We used engines manufactured by Honda, Kawasaki, Kohler, and Subaru (Robin). The tests were conducted at the Engines Laboratory of the California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo (Cal Poly). The Kohler engines are fuel injected while the others three are carbureted. We tested twenty-eight engines in total. The first series of tests included four horizontal shaft engines from each of the manufacturers (sixteen in total), and followed the general guidelines of SAE standard J1349-199506. This paper reports primarily on the subsequent series of twelve engine tests, which included vertical shaft engines of an equivalent family (and displacement class), from three of the original manufacturers: Honda, Kawasaki and Kohler. All three engines have roughly the same engine speed range (2000–4000), and all three reportedly reach peak power at 3600rpm. This is typical of small engines, which may be used to drive small generators in addition to being installed on other equipment. Vertical shaft engines are typically tested on a vertical shaft dynamometer, or one that converts from a horizontal to vertical position. However, these dynamometers are typically either of the water brake or eddy current type. They cannot motor the engine, and thus cannot measure friction mean effective pressure (FMEP) directly, which is the preferred method to quantify friction and mechanical efficiency for engine testing. However, testing vertical shaft engines on a horizontal shaft motoring dynamometer requires an angled gear drive to mate the engine to the dynamometer, and thus adds a loss that complicates the accurate measurement of FMEP and brake output. We present here results using a simple method with which our measurements can be corrected for this loss, in tests of this sort. The study thus expands on our previous results, and shows the extent by which engine to engine variations are affected by shaft configurations, within a given model family, and within similar offerings by different manufacturers. We also analyzed our results to contrast the methodology of SAE J1349-199506 with that of the updated J1349-201109, specifically with respect to using an assumed value of mechanical efficiency to characterize FMEP and correct dynamometer data on small, general utility engines.