Cerberus: A Mission to Pluto
Persephone is an unmanned satellite with the mission to reach and enter orbit around Pluto to improve upon the information taken by NASA’s New Horizons. Systems engineering techniques were used throughout the project, from concept to detail, and from launch calculations to trade studies on the spacecraft components.
Cerberus was an analytical mission with no plans of construction or testing, for the semester-long project requirements of a space systems course in 2020.
Mission Timeline.
Concept of Operations.
Using laser altimetry and spectrometry to collect data and a high resolution camera to capture images of Pluto and it’s moon Charon, the Cerberus spacecraft Persephone completes a Jupiter flyby to arrive and enter orbit over a 15 year flight path. The team calculated the three body orbit in MATLAB and designed the spacecraft in Engineering DOUG Graphics for Exploration (EDGE) software. This project emphasized trajectory mechanics and trade studies of major subsystems found in satellite missions as detailed by NASA, including Structures, Launch Vehicles, Propulsion, Ground Control, Communications, Telemetry Command & Data Handling, Guidance Navigation & Control, Power, Thermal, and Scientific Instruments and Payload.
My individual research was primarily on the Guidance Navigation & Control subsystem. This included researching various sensors like star trackers, sun sensors, deep space transponders, and reaction wheels to ensure the satellite remains in the proper orientation in respect to its trajectory as well as it’s projected orbit. Trade studies were also conducted for each sensor to select the ideal sensor on the public market for it’s respective application in the project.
The project included a final mission proposal to the instructor. The mission would take place over 15 years and gather data for a subsequent 3 years, and cost roughly $2.75 billion USD. A full report of the final design can be found here.
This course was my first academic look into systems engineering, and from it I found a new passion for a field I knew little about beforehand, as well as learning to work on a large team, all while having large amounts of ground to cover in terms of research and component selection on my own. This course also expanded on my knowledge of space mechanics, taught by Dr. Davide Conte in the semester prior, through an intense application scenario.
EP 394: Space Systems Engineering with Dr. Davide Conte and team: Brady O’Hayer, Blake Tangora, Matthew Robinaugh, Keegan Lubianski, Eleanor Pahl, Michael Lauber, and Andre Simmons.
Projected orbit of the Aphrodite satellite.
Depiction of Aphrodite satellite design using EDGE.