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Description
The Phoenix CubeSat is a 3U Earth imaging CubeSat which will take infrared (IR) photos of cities in the United Stated to study the Urban Heat Island Effect, (UHI) from low earth orbit (LEO). It has many different components that need to be powered during the life of its mission.

The Phoenix CubeSat is a 3U Earth imaging CubeSat which will take infrared (IR) photos of cities in the United Stated to study the Urban Heat Island Effect, (UHI) from low earth orbit (LEO). It has many different components that need to be powered during the life of its mission. The only power source during the mission will be its solar panels. It is difficult to calculate power generation from solar panels by hand because of the different orientations the satellite will be positioned in during orbit; therefore, simulation will be used to produce power generation data. Knowing how much power is generated is integral to balancing the power budget, confirming whether there is enough power for all the components, and knowing whether there will be enough power in the batteries during eclipse. This data will be used to create an optimal design for the Phoenix CubeSat to accomplish its mission.
ContributorsBarakat, Raymond John (Author) / White, Daniel (Thesis director) / Kitchen, Jennifer (Committee member) / Electrical Engineering Program (Contributor, Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-05
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Description
This paper describes the research done to attempt to scale up thrusts produced by ionic wind thrusters, or "lifters" to magnitudes needed to power a 2 kg hobbyist remote-control airplane. It includes background information on the Biefeld-Brown effect and the thrust it produces, an experiment that attempted to prove that

This paper describes the research done to attempt to scale up thrusts produced by ionic wind thrusters, or "lifters" to magnitudes needed to power a 2 kg hobbyist remote-control airplane. It includes background information on the Biefeld-Brown effect and the thrust it produces, an experiment that attempted to prove that thrust can be scaled up from smaller ionic wind thrusters to larger scales, and two models predicting thruster geometries and power sources needed to reach these thrusts. An ionic wind thruster could not be created that would power the hobbyist remote as a high-voltage power source with voltage and power high enough could not be obtained. Thrusters were created for the experiment using balsa wood, aluminum foil, and thin copper wire, and were powered using a 30 kV transformer. The thrusters attempted to test for correlations between thrust, electrode length, and current; electric field strength, and thrust; and thrust optimization through opening up air flow through the collector electrode. The experiment was inconclusive as all the thrusters failed to produce measurable thrust. Further experimentation suggests the chief failure mode is likely conduction from the collector electrode to the nearby large conductive surface of the scale.
ContributorsHaug, Andrew James (Author) / White, Daniel (Thesis director) / Takahashi, Timothy (Committee member) / Middleton, James (Committee member) / Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Program (Contributor) / Department of Military Science (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2017-12
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Description
To ensure safety is not precluded in the event of an engine failure, the FAA has

established climb gradient minimums enforced through Federal Regulations.

Furthermore, to ensure aircraft do not accidentally impact an obstacle on takeoff due to

insufficient climb performance, standard instrument departure procedures have their own

set

To ensure safety is not precluded in the event of an engine failure, the FAA has

established climb gradient minimums enforced through Federal Regulations.

Furthermore, to ensure aircraft do not accidentally impact an obstacle on takeoff due to

insufficient climb performance, standard instrument departure procedures have their own

set of climb gradient minimums which are typically more than those set by Federal

Regulation. This inconsistency between climb gradient expectations creates an obstacle

clearance problem: while the aircraft has enough climb gradient in the engine inoperative

condition so that basic flight safety is not precluded, this climb gradient is often not

strong enough to overfly real obstacles; this implies that the pilot must abort the takeoff

flight path and reverse course back to the departure airport to perform an emergency

landing. One solution to this is to reduce the dispatch weight to ensure that the aircraft

retains enough climb performance in the engine inoperative condition, but this comes at

the cost of reduced per-flight profits.

An alternative solution to this problem is the extended second segment (E2S)

climb. Proposed by Bays & Halpin, they found that a C-130H gained additional obstacle

clearance performance through this simple operational change. A thorough investigation

into this technique was performed to see if this technique can be applied to commercial

aviation by using a model A320 and simulating multiple takeoff flight paths in either a

calm or constant wind condition. A comparison of takeoff flight profiles against real

world departure procedures shows that the E2S climb technique offers a clear obstacle

clearance advantage which a scheduled four-segment flight profile cannot provide.
ContributorsBeard, John Eng Hui (Author) / Takahashi, Timothy T (Thesis advisor) / White, Daniel (Committee member) / Niemczyk, Mary (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017