Preliminary design of the darkness mission for Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory

This thesis presents the preliminary design of a 6U CubeSat satellite for the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab). The satellite incorporates components from NanoAvionics, LLC and supports a pair of charged-coupled devices (CCDs) with high energy resolution to characterize a 3.5 keV X-ray signal hypothesized to be associated with dark matter. The “Dark matter as a sterile NEutrino Search Satellite” (DarkNESS) is a collaboration between Fermilab and with the University of Illinois Department of Aerospace Engineering’s Laboratory for Advanced Space Systems at Illinois (LASSI). DarkNESS is a challenging mission with significant interplay between thermal control, power generation, orbit selection, instrument pointing configuration, and communications bandwidth. Mission analysis was developed for multiple DarkNESS configurations and bounded by the potential launch opportunities to Sun-synchronous or low-inclination orbit environments. The analysis identified durations of Earth obscuration of the instrument field of view and evaluated imaging opportunities when a suitable observation window was available in Earth’s eclipse. View factor computations informed the assessment of the external heating of the instrument aperture and radiator surfaces. A compact cryocooler is required to achieve the operating temperature of the instrument focal plane (170 K). The mission analysis incorporated the cryocooler in a finite element model to evaluate the internal and external heating and simulated the steady-state focal plane temperature for the instrument. The following steps for DarkNESS include thermal control risk mitigation tests to validate the cryocooler and radiator design integration and completion of a critical design review. The launch of DarkNESS to low earth orbit is anticipated in early 2024.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.S.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Aerospace Engineering

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2022

Author dc:creator

• Alpine, Eric

Contributors dc:contributor

• Lembeck, Michael L

• Engineering

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2021 Eric Alpine

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/113895

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F113895