University of Minnesota, Twin Cities¶
Type: Academia | Location: Minneapolis, MN | SST projects: 1
SST Portfolio¶
| Project | Title | Period | TRL | Status | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 155360 | Deep Space PNT Instrument (X-ray Pulsar Navigation) | 2023-10 → 2025-09 | 3→3 | Completed | no-visible-outcome |
What Was Developed¶
X-ray pulsar navigation sensor for deep-space small spacecraft PNT. Records arrival times of x-ray signals from celestial sources (pulsars, asynchronous x-ray sources) to estimate CubeSat distance and position independent of DSN. Single pulsar measurement provides rough distance; multiple sources refine the estimate.
Targets: Moon, Mars, and deep solar system destinations.
TRL stayed at 3 — design/analysis phase only.
Key People¶
- Demoz Gebre-Egziabher — PI (aerospace engineering, navigation systems)
- Lindsay E Glesener — Co-I (x-ray astrophysics, UMN)
- Marcus S Murbach — Co-I (ARC)
Murbach connection: Marcus Murbach is a veteran ARC engineer who appears in the PhoneSat [11020] and EDSN [10941] era of SST. His Co-I role here bridges early-era SST and the latest cycle.
Upstream Lineage¶
X-ray pulsar navigation has NASA heritage through NICER/SEXTANT (ISS-based X-ray timing experiment, 2017, demonstrated first real-time X-ray pulsar navigation). This SST project is a CubeSat miniaturization of that concept.
Downstream Impact¶
No follow-on, no flight, no commercial product. TRL didn't advance.
Assessment¶
Outcome category: no-visible-outcome
Pattern: "Ambitious Concept, Early TRL" — x-ray pulsar nav is a real technology (demonstrated on ISS via SEXTANT) but miniaturizing the detector to CubeSat scale is a hard problem. TRL 3→3 in 2 years reflects the difficulty.
Distinctive: Murbach (ARC) as Co-I is a quiet People Chain connecting SST's earliest era (PhoneSat, 2011) to its latest (2023). The technology concept — astronomical PNT without DSN — is the most ambitious navigation approach in the SST portfolio.
Cross-reference: GN&C topic, UT Austin (crater-based nav — complementary approach)
Last updated: 2026-04-14 (session 20)