2026-09-22T06:34:04Z https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/132560 2026-02-20 col_2142_5131 col_2142_14800 com_2142_5130 com_2142_14799 com_2142_234

application/pdf en text Submission original under an indefinite embargo labeled 'Open Access'. The submission was exported from vireo on 2026-02-19 without embargo terms The student, Christopher Young, accepted the attached license on 2025-12-02 at 23:49. The student, Christopher Young, submitted this Thesis for approval on 2025-12-03 at 00:04. This Thesis was approved for publication on 2025-12-08 at 11:34. DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #23033 on 2026-02-19 at 18:26:20 Conceptual design of HADES a CubeSat conducting radio astronomy in lunar orbit Young, Christopher C 2025-12-08 Lembeck, Michael F HADES CubeSat frozen orbit FreeFlyer radio astronomy quasi-frozen orbit systems engineering orbital mechanics eng The “HI Absorption in the Dark agES” (HADES) mission proposes a novel CubeSat architecture to address one of the most significant challenges in modern cosmology: the detection of the redshifted 21 cm neutral hydrogen signal from the Cosmic Dawn and Epoch of Reionization. Observations in the 1 to 100 MHz frequency regime are effectively impossible from Earth due to ionospheric cutoff and intense anthropogenic radio frequency interference. This thesis evaluates the feasibility of a lunar-orbiting 12U CubeSat designed to leverage the Moon’s far side as a natural shield against terrestrial and solar noise, targeting the detection of the global spectral distortion in the cosmic microwave background. A comprehensive high-fidelity mission simulation framework was developed using the FreeFlyer software suite to assess orbital stability, science access, and subsystem performance. By incorporating the high-resolution GRAIL GL0660B lunar gravity model and third-body perturbations from the Earth and Sun, the study performed an extensive parameter sweep of the lunar orbital phase space. This analysis identified a narrow corridor of “quasi-frozen” near-equatorial orbits (a ≈ 1833 km, e ≈ 0.01, i ≈ 0.30◦, ω ≈ 160◦) capable of maintaining stability for over one year without the need for station-keeping maneuvers. The selected design reference orbit yields 741 h of dual-shielded Prime Science integration time, providing a robust 32% margin over the 560 h scientific requirement necessary to achieve the required signal-to-noise ratio. Integrated subsystem analyses confirmed that the proposed platform can support this demanding mission profile. The electrical power system, utilizing 82.75 W beginning-of-life solar arrays and a 93 Wh battery, maintains a positive energy balance with a worst-case eclipse depth of discharge of 25%, well within operational safety limits. The communications analysis demonstrates that a standard X-band link to the Deep Space Network, allocated just 20 min of contact time per day, provides sufficient capacity (3.50 GB/yr) to downlink the estimated 2.70 GB annual science data volume. These results validate the HADES mission concept, demonstrating that a low-cost CubeSat platform can effectively access the radio-quiet lunar far side to probe the early universe. 2025-12 Thesis https://hdl.handle.net/2142/132560 © 2025 Christopher C. Young Aerospace Engineering Aerospace Engineering University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign M.S. Thesis