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Thermal, Power, Sensors & Instruments — SST Portfolio Cluster

SST has funded 15 projects in thermal management, power systems, energy storage, sensors, instruments, and imaging. Unlike propulsion and communications — where multiple SST projects produced commercial products and flight missions — this cluster is predominantly academic research that advanced TRL within labs but rarely produced visible downstream impact. The exception is the U Michigan boomless magnetometer, which published in JGR and is being tested on a CubeSat mission.

Last updated: 2026-04-14 (session 22)

Overview

Technology SST Projects Key Orgs Max TRL Achieved Flight?
Deployable radiators 3 U Dayton, Penn State, Cal State LA TRL 5 (AMDROHP) No
Cryocoolers 2 USU (Swenson ×2) TRL 5 No
Integrated power + thermal 1 UIUC TRL 5 No
Nano-enhanced power 1 RIT TRL 5 No
Structural batteries 1 U Miami TRL 5 No
Low-temp energy storage 1 JPL TRL 5 No
Alpha/betavoltaic 1 ARC + GRC TRL 4 No
Boomless magnetometer 1 U Michigan (Moldwin) TRL 6 Testing on MiTEE
THz receiver 1 ASU (Groppi) TRL 5 No
Mini FTS spectrometer 1 GSFC TRL 5 No
Milli-arcsecond imaging 1 UIUC (Kamalabadi) TRL 6 No

Thermal Management (5 projects)

Passively Deployed Radial Radiator (155366)

  • TRL: not reported | Period: 2024-01 → 2025-12
  • Lead: University of Dayton, OH
  • States: MD, OH
  • Very recent project (2024-2025). Passive radial radiator for CubeSat waste heat. No documents or outcomes data available yet.

Outcome: unknown (too recent) | Confidence: speculative

Passive SMA Heat-Pipe Radiators (155365)

  • TRL: not reported | Period: 2024-01 → 2025-12
  • Lead: Penn State, PA
  • States: OH, PA
  • Shape-memory alloy (SMA) heat-pipe radiators that passively deploy using thermal activation. For high-intensity small spacecraft.

Outcome: unknown (too recent) | Confidence: speculative

AMDROHP — Additively Manufactured Deployable Radiator (106830)

  • TRL: 3→5 | Period: 2020-07 → 2024-10
  • Lead: California State University–Los Angeles (AANAPISI MSI)
  • PI: Yen J. Kuo | Co-I: Eric Sunada (JPL), Scott Roberts
  • Destination: Moon and Cislunar
  • 3D-printed deployable radiator with oscillating heat pipes (OHP). Target: 50W dissipation in LEO for CubeSat form factor. Flexible OHP joints with >6 W/K conductance, 5,000 W/m/K effective thermal conductivity.
  • MSI institution — one of few SST projects at a minority-serving institution.

Outcome: no-visible-outcome | Confidence: speculative

Active CryoCubeSat (91561)

  • TRL: 3→5 | Period: 2015-11 → 2018-10
  • Lead: USU | PI: Charles M. Swenson
  • States: CA, MD, UT (ANNH MSI)
  • Mechanical pumped fluid loop (MPFL) + pulse tube cryocooler for 75–100K detector temperatures. Additive manufacturing for embedded conformal coolant channels.
  • Same PI as ATACOI [95587] — Charles Swenson runs a persistent cryogenic thermal program at USU. Two SST projects, same research thread.

Outcome: no-visible-outcome (academic) | Confidence: confirmed

Active Thermal Architecture for Cryogenic Optical Instruments — ATACOI (95587)

  • TRL: 3→5 | Period: 2018-03 → 2022-01
  • Lead: USU | PI: Charles M. Swenson
  • Destination: Earth
  • Advanced thermal control for cryogenic electro-optical instruments on CubeSats. Successor to Active CryoCubeSat — same PI, extended research program.
  • Together with [91561], this represents a 7-year persistent USU cryogenic thermal research thread (2015–2022).

Outcome: no-visible-outcome (academic) | Confidence: confirmed

Power Systems (4 projects)

Integrated Power System with Active Thermal Control (91380)

  • TRL: 3→5 | Period: 2015-10 → 2017-12
  • Lead: UIUC | PI: Alexander Ghosh
  • States: CA, IL
  • Carbon fiber solar panels with embedded microvascular fluid channels for combined power generation, energy storage, and active thermal management. Scalable from 6U to 100 kg.
  • Interesting multifunctional concept but no visible downstream.

Outcome: no-visible-outcome | Confidence: speculative

Nano-Enabled Space Power System (90693)

  • TRL: 4→5 | Period: 2016-08 → 2018-08
  • Lead: Rochester Institute of Technology | PI: Ryne Raffaelle
  • States: NY, OH
  • Nanomaterial-enhanced solar cells, wire harnesses, and lithium-ion batteries. Improved performance without changing physical dimensions.

Outcome: no-visible-outcome | Confidence: speculative

Lightweight Structural Battery Systems (94116)

  • TRL: 3→5 | Period: 2016-08 → 2018-08
  • Lead: University of Miami | PI: Ryan Kakkainen
  • States: FL, OH
  • Carbon fiber + graphitic electrodes in electrolytic polymer = structural elements that double as battery. Reduces mass by combining load-bearing and energy storage functions.
  • Structural batteries remain an active research area in aerospace but have not reached flight.

Outcome: no-visible-outcome | Confidence: speculative

SmallSat Low-Temperature Energy Storage (91359)

  • TRL: 3→5 | Period: 2013-10 → 2014-12
  • Lead: JPL | PI: Sharlene Katz
  • States: CA, CO
  • Destination: Others Inside the Solar System
  • Battery/ultra-capacitor hybrid power system for extreme low temperatures. Eliminates battery heaters for deep-space missions.
  • Short 14-month project. No visible follow-on.

Outcome: no-visible-outcome | Confidence: speculative

Alpha/Betavoltaic Power Sources (10936)

  • TRL: 3→4 | Period: 2011-08 → 2012-03
  • Lead: ARC + GRC | PI: Eric Clark
  • Destinations: Moon, Mars, Foundational Knowledge
  • Assessment of small radioisotope power supplies using direct energy conversion (alpha/betavoltaic) for future NASA missions. Essentially a feasibility study — 7 months.
  • Closed out March 2012.

Outcome: no-visible-outcome (feasibility study) | Confidence: confirmed

Sensors, Instruments & Imaging (4 projects)

Boomless CubeSat Magnetometer (94109)

  • TRL: 3→6 | Period: 2016-08 → 2018-08
  • Lead: University of Michigan | PI: Mark Moldwin
  • States: MD, MI
  • Destinations: Earth, Sun
  • Quad-Mag: four magnetometer sensors on a single CubeSat card. Blind source separation algorithms identify and subtract spacecraft-generated magnetic noise, eliminating the need for a deployable boom. Science-grade measurements from inside the satellite bus.
  • Published in JGR Space Physics (2023): Hoffmann, Moldwin, Strabel, Ojeda — "Enabling Boomless CubeSat Magnetic Field Measurements with Quad-Mag" (NTRS 53950636251698).
  • Being tested on the MiTEE CubeSat (U Michigan Miniature Tether Electrodynamics Experiment).
  • This is the highest-downstream-impact sensor project in the SST portfolio — peer-reviewed publication + CubeSat flight test.

Outcome: transitioned (published + CubeSat test) | Confidence: suggestive

Terahertz Receiver for Small Satellite Remote Sensing (94030)

  • TRL: 3→5 | Period: 2016-08 → 2018-08
  • Lead: Arizona State University (ANNH MSI) | PI: Christopher Groppi
  • States: AZ, CA, OH
  • Destinations: Earth, Mars, Others Inside the Solar System
  • Schottky diode THz receiver repackaged using micromachining for CubeSat form factor. 10× mass/volume reduction. Enables remote sensing of water and atomic oxygen (opaque in Earth's atmosphere but scientifically critical).
  • Groppi is a prominent radio astronomy instrumentalist (ASU Terahertz lab).

Outcome: no-visible-outcome | Confidence: speculative

Mini Fourier-Transform Spectrometer (106803)

  • TRL: 3→5 | Period: 2013-10 → 2015-09
  • Lead: GSFC | PI: John C. Allen
  • States: MD, NC
  • FT spectrometer on a chip — mid-infrared spectral signatures for atmospheric composition, mineralogy, surface processes. Eliminates bulky free-space optics and mechanical scan mirrors.

Outcome: no-visible-outcome | Confidence: speculative

Milli-Arcsecond Imaging with Smallsat Super-Resolution (95523)

  • TRL: 3→6 | Period: 2018-03 → 2022-01
  • Lead: UIUC | PI: Farzad Kamalabadi
  • States: IL, MD
  • Destination: Sun
  • Computational diffractive optical sensing + formation flying = milli-arcsecond imaging. Unprecedented resolution using photon sieves and advanced image processing. Demonstrated in lab at TRL 6.
  • NSF also awarded Kamalabadi funding for related work (Award 1936663).
  • No flight mission or commercial product. Remains in academic research phase.

Outcome: no-visible-outcome (academic) | Confidence: confirmed

Cross-Cutting Findings

1. Academic TRL Ceiling at 5–6

Every project in this cluster hit TRL 5 or 6 and stopped. No thermal, power, or sensor project reached flight (TRL 7+). The exception is the Quad-Mag magnetometer, which is being tested on MiTEE but hasn't flown independently. This contrasts sharply with propulsion (5 flights) and communications (6+ flights).

2. USU Thermal Thread: 5 SST Projects, 1 Persistent Capability

Utah State University has 5 SST projects (the most of any university), clustered around thermal management and propulsion: - [91561] Active CryoCubeSat (Swenson, 2015–2018) - [95587] ATACOI (Swenson, 2018–2022) - [91602] ISAAC solar-panel antenna (Baktur, 2015–2017) - [106834] 3D Printed Hybrid Propulsion (Whitmore, 2020–2025) — transitioned to Marshall HLS - [95587] ATACOI (note: Swenson ran both cryo projects)

Swenson's 7-year cryogenic thermal thread is the academic analog of ARC's institutional capability building. The propulsion work (Whitmore) had visible downstream; the thermal work did not, despite similar TRL advancement.

3. MSI Representation

Four MSI-connected projects in this cluster: AMDROHP at Cal State LA (AANAPISI), Active CryoCubeSat at USU (ANNH), THz Receiver at ASU (ANNH), and SCALES at Cal Poly Pomona (HSI + AANAPISI). None produced flights. By contrast, the only MSI with a confirmed flight in the entire SST portfolio is SDSU (Hispanic-Serving Institution) — FIGARO-FT HAB flight Sep 2024 — and that's in the comms/PNT cluster, not thermal/power. See University Academic Outcomes.

4. No Acquisition Targets

Unlike propulsion and bus companies, none of the thermal/power/sensor researchers or their institutions became acquisition targets or commercial product lines. The technology stayed in labs. This may reflect the nature of the subsystems: thermal and power are integrator-dependent (you need a mission to fly them), while propulsion and comms have standalone product value.

Org pages for this cluster

  • U Dayton — radial radiator (2024, too recent)
  • Penn State — SMA heat-pipe radiators (2024, too recent)
  • Cal State LA — AMDROHP 3D-printed radiator
  • U Miami — structural battery
  • RIT — nano-enabled power
  • U Michigan — boomless magnetometer (Moldwin)
  • ASU Tempe — THz receiver (Groppi)
  • UIUC — integrated power + milli-arcsecond imaging (Kamalabadi)
  • USU — 5 SST projects (thermal + propulsion)