Ricerc@Sapienza

The in-orbit cultivation of vegetables, fruits, and edible plants is of paramount importance for the development of long-term manned space mission Environmental Control and Life Support Systems (ECLSS) and for the improvement of bio-regenerative systems. GreenCube is a 3U CubeSat mission aimed at demonstrating the functionalities of an autonomous cultivation laboratory that stems from a collaboration between the Sapienza University of Rome, the Italian Space Agency, University of Naples "Federico II", and ENEA.

The Sapienza Space Systems and Space Surveillance Laboratory (S5Lab) at Sapienza University of Rome is in the recent years carrying out a multiplicity of University nano-satellite projects, with the design, development, launch and operations of their CubeSats. The development of a satellite is a key-importance chance for University students to gain soft skills, practical knowledge and to follow a complete development cycle of a spaceborne object.

With the increasing number of satellite launches, especially in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), optical tracking can offer a convenient enhancement of tracking precision and availability. Spaceborne active illumination devices, such as LED payloads, can offer a significant improvement to optical observations, extending the observability interval to the whole eclipse time and performing optimized flash sequences for identification, orbit determination, attitude reconstruction or low data rate communication.

The autonomous production of nutrients and oxygen in space is a challenge for future human space exploration. In every mission scenario, a significant cost- and mass-saving issue is represented by recycling resources, plants could easily take charge of this process. By photosynthesis, plants can absorb carbon dioxide and consume crew waste to generate oxygen, fresh nutrients and clean water. However, no plants were adapted to space environment and no specific ideotype exists.

LEDSAT (LED-based small SATellite) is a 1-Unit CubeSat project conceived by the Sapienza - Space Systems and Space Surveillance Laboratory (S5Lab) research team at Sapienza - University of Rome, with the collaboration of the University of Michigan (USA). The project has been accepted for the European Space Agency Fly Your Satellite! Programme, it is under development with the support of the Italian Space Agency (in the framework of the IKUNS project) and it will be launched within 2020.

Optical observations are intensively applied to space debris monitoring for the achievement of orbit determination and for gathering information on their attitude motion, even if constrained by light conditions. Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) installed on the external surfaces of a satellite could increase the visibility interval to the whole eclipse time. LEDSAT (LED-based small SATellite) is a 1-Unit CubeSat aimed at demonstrating the effectiveness of LEDs for the improvement of space debris optical monitoring algorithms.

LEDSAT (LED-based small SATellite) is a 1-Unit CubeSat project equipped with a LED- (Light Emitting Diode-) - based payload, carried out by the S5Lab (Sapienza Space System and Space Surveillance Laboratory) research team. The satellite mission, conceived with the University of Michigan, has been accepted for the European Space Agency Fly Your Satellite! Programme and it will be launched in 2019. The project is primarily addressed at verifying and improving the current methodologies for satellites and space debris orbit determination by means of optical observations.

1KUNS-PF (1 st Kenyan University Nano Satellite - Precursor Flight) is the first 1-Unit CubeSat developed by the Republic of Kenya, and the first nano-satellite selected for the “KiboCUBE” programme. This is the result of the cooperation between the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) and the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), and it is aimed to provide developing countries with the opportunity for a CubeSat deployment from the International Space Station (ISS) using the Japanese Experiment Module (Kibo).

LEDSAT (LED-based small SATellite) is a 1-Unit CubeSat that will mount Light Emitting Diodes (LEDs) on its six faces, in order to validate, verify and improve the current methodologies for optical orbit determination. The LEDs will also support the CubeSat identification after deployment from the ISS. The satellite is being produced by the S5Lab research group at Sapienza - University of Rome, and it has been accepted for the European Space Agency Fly Your Satellite Programme.

This paper is aimed at demonstrating the possibility of growing a tomato ideotype, fortified in anti-oxidant content (derived from Micro-Tom, a model cultivar for tomato research overexpressing anthocyanins) and specifically developed for spatial environment, in a seed-to-seed cycle (70-90 days) on a CubeSat. To reach this goal, a dedicated micro satellite equivalent to 12 U will be developed to be sent into low-orbit. Growing plants in space is a prerequisite to sustain long-term human exploration of the solar system.