Available at: https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/theses/2868
Date of Award
6-2024
Degree Name
MS in Aerospace Engineering
Department/Program
Aerospace Engineering
College
College of Engineering
Advisor
Kira Abercromby
Advisor Department
Aerospace Engineering
Advisor College
College of Engineering
Abstract
The explosion of exoplanet astronomy has led to thousands of new discoveries and opportunities to be explored. The ability to capture images and perform meaningful science has resulted in an abundance of follow-on missions, surveys, and fostered a community of amateur astronomers in the last ten years. This success mirrors the development of CubeSats, which have proved an immensely popular way for students of all levels to access space and collect data. Multiple CubeSats have been developed to observe and characterize single exoplanet tran- sits, showing that this class of mission is possible. However, there is currently no mission designed to act as a low-cost robotic telescope in space for students to use and collect data. This thesis is intended to analyze feasibility of observing a large number of exoplanet transits over a long duration, with the goal of being able to revisit any one system three times (the minimum for confirmation). To facilitate this, the payload performance is characterized, and requirements flowed down to the design of the attitude determination and control subsystem, thermal con- trol subsystem, communications subsystem, and power subsystem. Additionally, mission constraints lead to orbit selection and the CubeSat specification provides requirements on mounting and layout.