The CubeSat was deployed on January 31, 2019 and has been sending back data since its departure.
According to a recent study, only 45% of CubeSat units last longer than 60 days in service.
The Undergraduate Nano Ionospheric Temperature Explorer CubeSat, or UNITE CubeSat, was funded by a NASA Undergraduate Student Instruments Project (USIP) grant.
This interesting spacecraft will be dubbed OSCaR and it’s intended to collect space debris, or space junk.
Standing for “Obsolete Spacecraft Capture and Removal”, it’s a three-unit CubeSat being created by a team of researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the USA’s oldest technological research university.
Some are the size of a toaster. Others a suitcase. They can ride into space as secondary payloads in a rocket’s “trunk,” or even be tossed out of an airlock, to start their missions. Small satellites, often collectively called “cubesats,” are changing the way we explore space and monitor our home planet.
Host: Preston Dyches
Speaker: Anne Marinan (JPL) — Systems Engineer, Near Earth Asteroid Scout & Mars Cube One;
Team Xc Lead Engineer: Travis Imken (JPL) — Project Systems Engineer, RainCube
“The goals of the Amateur Radio station at the World Scout Jamboree are to introduce Amateur Radio to Scouts and Scout leaders through hands-on participation in two-way communication with other stations across the globe. This activity will also serve as the Amateur Radio voice of the Jamboree,” the World Scout Jamboree Amateur Radio Exhibit Operational Vision document states. Other facets of Amateur Radio at the Jamboree will include Amateur Radio direction finding (ARDF), Amateur Radio satellite contacts, and a scheduled Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) contact with an ISS crew member.
** Great views of earth and vehicles approaching and docking to the station matched with a nice soundtrack:
The International Space Station’s High Definition Earth Viewing (HDEV) experiment is an external camera platform located on the Columbus module of the space station. In addition to providing beautiful views of Earth, one of the goals of HDEV is to monitor the longevity and quality of its image sensors in the space environment. HDEV operations began April 30, 2014 and only a single bad pixel has been identified. Testing new engineering processes and camera system longevity expanded into having avid Earth-viewing followers and educational activities. To date, HDEV has reached over 300 million total views on UStream. Learn more: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/st…
** Science and technology payloads heading to the ISS aboard the CRS-17 Cargo Dragon:
When it launches on Friday, May 3, SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft will carry crew supplies, scientific research and hardware to the International Space Station to support dozens of the more than 250 science and research investigations. Learn more about the science headed to space: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages….
A SpaceX Dragon supply ship packed with nearly three tons of experiments, crew provisions and supplies will remain on the ground until at least Friday morning to allow more time for NASA flight controllers to troubleshoot a problem with an electrical distribution unit on the International Space Station.
Multiple sources said the commercial resupply launch, previously scheduled for Wednesday, will be pushed back at least two days to no earlier than Friday at 3:11 a.m. EDT (0711 GMT).
Long March 4B rocket, with two Tianhui II-01 remote sensing sciencie satellites. Credits: Xinhua
Booster lands on a local village:
Ugh. Here’s the latest edition of toxic hydrazine rocket stages falling on inhabited areas following a Chinese orbital launch. This is from a launch at 22:52 UTC Monday/06:52 Beijing time Tues. https://t.co/dhRtu5mtFRpic.twitter.com/gqNH4ROCVD
Firefly has achieved a major milestone toward flight qualification of the Alpha second stage, supporting Firefly’s goal of Alpha first launch in 2019. A 300 second hotfire test of the complete upper stage was accomplished on the company’s vertical stage test stand. The length of the test successfully demonstrates the capability of the integrated system (flight avionics, structures, and propulsion systems) to operate for the duration of a flight mission (i.e., a mission duty cycle).
We’ve gone vertical with our new HQ and R&D facility in Kent, WA! We’re continuing to add to our world-class team and excited for a large new facility that will support rapid growth. Thanks to Mayor @dana_ralph and @cityofkent as well as everyone involved with the construction. pic.twitter.com/SjUa8fEvpM
There’s a new trend going around in the commercial space industry when it comes to launch abort systems. All three commercial companies who are putting abort systems on their crewed vehicles have ditched the classic launch abort tower we’ve seen dominate abort systems in the past. Previous vehicles like the Mercury capsule, the Apollo capsule and even the Soyuz all used an escape tower that sat on top of the crew module, capable of pulling the vehicle away from a failing rocket in a hurry.
*** Falcon Heavy core booster tested in preparation for the STP-2 Mission set for launch in June:
Barring a surprise reassignment, the booster Joshuah Murrah caught is Falcon 9 B1051, on its way west some 50 days after successfully supporting Crew Dragon’s March 2nd launch debut. Despite the availability of B1046, B1047, and B1049, B1051 was assigned to the Canadian Space Agency’s (CSA) Radarsat Constellation Mission (RCM) shortly after landing aboard OCISLY, triggering major launch delays. The most logical explanation for customer CSA’s and satellite contractor Maxar Technologies’ curious decision is that they must believe that Falcon 9 Block 5 boosters with more than one launch in their past add more risk than those that do not.
*** Broken Falcon Heavy core prepared for departure from Port Canaveral:
In this Order and Authorization (Order), we grant the application1 of Space Exploration Holdings, LLC (SpaceX) to modify its previously authorized 4,425 non-geostationary orbit (NGSO) satellite constellation using Ku- and Ka-band spectrum.2 Specifically, we authorize SpaceX to slightly reduce the number of satellites in this constellation, to operate a substantial portion of these satellites at a lower orbital altitude than previously authorized, and to include the use of Ku-band gateway earth stations for fewer than 75 of these lower-altitude satellites.3 Grant of this modification will allow SpaceX to make efficient use of valuable spectrum resources more safely, quickly, and cost-effectively as it initiates a new generation of broadband services available to customers worldwide, including those in areas previously underserved or even totally unserved by other broadband solutions.
A statement from SpaceX:
Here’s @SpaceX‘s full statement on the FCC granting a modification request for its first ~1500 Starlink satellites.
Above all else, SpaceX’s confirmation that the first batch of Starlink satellites are already in Florida drives home the reality that the company’s internet satellite constellation is about to become very real. Said constellation has long been the subject of endless skepticism and criticism, dominated by a general atmosphere of dismissal. There is no doubt that Starlink, as proposed, is an extraordinarily ambitious program that will cost billions of dollars to even begin to realize. SpaceX will have to find ways to affordably manufacture and launch ~11,900 satellites – together weighing something like 500 metric tons (1.1 million lbs) – in as few as nine years, start to finish.
According to SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, the next round of Starhopper activity will focus on removing the spacecraft prototype’s tethers and performing far more substantial hop tests.
Longer tests demand that SpaceX begins expanding the known performance envelope of its full-scale Raptor engine. Towards that end, longer-duration tests would need to be done at the company’s McGregor, TX development facilities to reduce risk, tests that Musk confirmed are already well underway. A recent Raptor static fire reportedly lasted no less than 40 seconds, more than enough time for a single-engine Starhopper to significantly expand both the maximum altitude and velocity of future hop tests. In support of the upcoming Starhopper test campaign, significant construction work is also ongoing at SpaceX’s Boca Chica test and development facilities.
*** Progress on construction of the orbital Starship test vehicle continues at Boca Chica Beach:
#SpaceX crew enjoy a day of rest after a long week of work on the orbital #StarShip prototype. Two sections of the fairing have been assembled and are awaiting for completion. 📷(4/28/19) #BocaChicapic.twitter.com/AIGBWWMJW4
Mentored by experts from the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), undergraduate students at Birla Institute of Technology, Pilani, are inching closer to their dream of designing and launching a nano-satellite or cubesat — of the size of a shoebox – with a special camera that will help study the earth’s surface for response during natural hazards and track carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.
The country’s first student-run undergraduate research group, which is on a mission to launch a one-of-its-kind nano-satellite with hyperspectral imager, has been christened Team Anant. It has 40 members across all engineering branches and batches at the Rajasthan-based institute.
** Students at Rensselaer Polytechnique Institute (RPI) are building OSCaR (Obsolete Spacecraft Capture and Removal) smallsat to test techniques for de-orbiting space debris
OSCaR (Obsolete Spacecraft Capture and Removal) is a 3U CubeSat in development at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute that aims to de-orbit space debris.
From the RPI article:
… [Professor Kurt] Anderson and his students are developing OSCaR, a small device that will be able to inexpensively be sent into space aboard larger vehicles and then released to nearly autonomously seek out, capture, and then de-orbit space debris.
OSCaR is a three-unit member of a class of very small satellites known as CubeSats. Each unit is a small and light 10 cm x 10 cm x 10 cm cube.
One of those CubeSat units will house the “brains” of OSCaR including GPS, data storage, and communication, as well as the power and thermal management systems. Another will hold propellant and the system’s propulsion module to drive OSCaR forward. The third unit will contain four gun barrels, nets, and tethers to physically capture debris, one piece at a time. This capture module will also have optical, thermal, and RADAR imaging sensors to help OSCaR locate debris in the vastness of its surrounding space.
After it is done collecting debris, OSCaR will be programmed to deorbit itself within five years, destroying itself and the debris it caught.
