DEVELOPMENT OF ORBITAL PROPAGATION SIMULATIONS FOR THE PULSE-A CUBESAT

In order to properly design a mission plan for University of Chicago's PULSE-A CubeSat, it is necessary to measure the approximate maximum power available over the entire lifetime of the satellite, boot configuration feasibility, and viable optical passes. This is a presentation of the methods and results of the three simulations. All propagations are across a two-year timespan, simulated from 2027 to 2029. The power budget simulation was run twice to account for maximum and minimum possible panel efficiency. It yielded the instantaneous power in W, and Riemann sums were used to estimate the maximum and minimum possible power in Wh. Once the simulation had concluded, it counted the number of orbits that had taken place, dividing the maximum and minimum Wh to get an average per orbit, resulting in 22.184 Wh/orbit and 19.043 Wh/orbit for maximum and minimum efficiency respectively. The simulation is validating the satellite's survivability in an ISS-like orbit in a 35-minute eclipse. It is tracking the 20 Wh/orbit battery's State of Charge (SoC) over 11,680 orbits. The power budget simulation uses mode-switching logic to model the off-pointing of the satellite. This prevents the satellite from overcharging when the SoC exceeds 95%. Ultimately, the simulation verifies the sustainability of the satellite's high-power payload operations while maintaining a safe 33% maximum depth of discharge (DoD). The Optical Passes simulation maps out the time and dates for every occurrence in which PULSE-A passes between 30 and 80 degrees of the horizon of the Ground Station for any custom initial inclination, Right Ascension, and True Anomaly, yielding the position, pass status, eclipse status, and pass times/durations. The boot configuration feasibility simulation used the same methods, configuring 6 solar cells each to the +z, +y and -y axes, and 2 cells each to the +x and -x axes. These simulations will be used to determine the appropriate size for the CubeSat, 3U or 6U.