XCube Electrical Interface Standardization Survey
The Cal Poly CubeSat Laboratory is in collaboration with the NASA Airborne Science Program and USRA. The team from Cal Poly is tasked to design a standard for integration of CubeSats into the NASA aircraft for suborbital flight testing and experiments. A standard for airborne science experiments creates more opportunities for new developers to collect valuable science data. This will allows existing science research more means for instrument calibration and testing prior to integration into a spacecraft.

In their current state, NASA aircraft flights often have underutilized spaces that are left empty. These payload bays could be used for smaller, secondary payloads, utilizing this flight opportunity to maximize the amount of science data collected. The ER-2 is a potential platform for this project because it already has multiple payload areas and frequently flies without all of the payload areas being utilized. The development of a standard based on the CubeSat form factor will allow for faster integrations and less on-site adjustments, which will minimize secondary payload influence on launch departure delays.

In this survey, we are looking to gather information about the connectors, electrical interfaces, and communication protocols currently in use by CubeSat and payload developers. Responses to this survey will provide us with valuable assistance while designing this standard to produce a system that will be as useful as possible for the largest audience.

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What voltage rail configurations would you prefer for a power input?
Through a previous survey, we have limited the voltages we will supply payloads with to 28 volts and 12 volts. Our initial design included the capability to supply both voltages simultaneously to an individual payload. However, we are looking to verify that this is a functionality that is in wide demand before we complicate our power distribution network to provide this option. Please answer this question by indicating whether or not your payload would need both voltage supplies simultaneously or use the "other" field to go into more detail.
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What is your average power consumption?
What is your peak power consumption?
How much voltage ripple would be acceptable for your payload/instrument?
Part of our design consideration is to regulate the voltage of the carrier's power supply to be within acceptable limits for payload needs. Please let us know what your payload's acceptable voltage ripple/tolerance range would be so that we could do our best to accommodate them.
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What other power requirements does your payload/CubeSat require?
Which communication protocol(s) would you prefer to use in order to interface through the XCube carrier?
The XCube carrier will translate communications between the aircraft Ethernet server and its payloads for the purposes of enabling ground communications and the storing of payload data. To do this we need information as to which communication protocols are in most frequent use by payload/CubeSat developers so that we can choose the most appropriate connectors to satisfy these requirements. Please check all the boxes for the protocols your payload could utilize.
For each communication protocol listed above please describe the communication speed that your system would require support for. For SPI and I2C please list a maximum clock-speed, and for UART please list a BAUD.
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