CADENCE Spacecraft - Nanosats Database

Satellite name	CADENCE (Cubesat Autonomous Detection and Enhanced Networked Computing Experiment)
Spacecraft type	CubeSat
Units or mass	3U
Entity name	Cal Poly Pomona (Bronco Space)
Institution	University
Entity	Academic / Education
Country	US
Partners	Bronco Space, ICON (the Institute for Collaborative Orbital Networks)
Oneliner	Demonstrate the ability to autonomously detect ground-based phenomena, responsively track them, and perform preliminary analysis using AI algorithms.
Description	For the last few years Bronco Space (the unofficial official space program at Cal Poly Pomona) and its affiliate ICON (Institute for Collaborative Orbital Networks) lab have been investigating the use of edge computing to enhance the autonomy of small space systems. By using inter-satellite links and distributed computing resources, the CADENCE mission shall demonstrate the ability to autonomously detect ground-based phenomena, responsively track them, and perform preliminary analysis using Artificial Intelligence algorithms. This notional architecture could support an ad hoc network of combined sensing and compute assets or a hub and spoke model where there the individual satellites are dedicated to sensing or computing but not both. Sensor data can be collected at various nodes and then processed in real time or cross linked to a central hub for responsive analysis. While this preliminary analysis is limited compared to what is possible from ground-based compute resources or human analysts, timeliness is significantly greater. The primary benefit of the on-orbit analysis is the ability to do responsive and ad hoc tasking of a satellite swarm of constellation to observe transient phenomena. In example, an observing satellite could detect the start of a wildfire and autonomously re-task other assets in the constellation to quickly track and gather more data on the fire without the need to complete the loop with human operators, a delay time which makes a significant difference in being able to understand the early stages of transient threats. The inter satellite link can be facilitated by a LoRa modulated signal, which allows for extremely power efficient data transfer while also making use of the the LoRa modulation’s spreading factor orthogonality to create virtual channels that allow for multiple simultaneous transmissions to occur on the same frequency without interference.
Sources	[1]
Keywords	Intersatellite links

Related Spacecraft

Spacecraft	Status	Launcher	Date	Orbit
CADENCE A (Cubesat Autonomous Detection and Enhanced Networked Computing Experiment)	not launched	not launched	2026-12-31	not launched
CADENCE B (Cubesat Autonomous Detection and Enhanced Networked Computing Experiment)	not launched	not launched	2026-12-31	not launched

Last modified: 2023-12-16