Category Archives: Education

Amateur/Student Satellite, Education, Space Radio

Student and amateur CubeSat news roundup – Jan.1.2019

A sampling of recent articles, press releases, etc. about student and amateur CubeSat / SmallSat projects and programs:

** Soyuz launches cluster of 28 satellites – Spaceflight Now

The University of Würzburg’s fourth experimental CubeSat, known as UWE 4, carries a miniaturized electric propulsion system to be demonstrated in orbit, and also serves as an educational tool for the German university’s engineering students.

…

The other satellites deployed in the Fregat’s final orbit were ZACube 2, a South African CubeSat, and the Lume 1 CubeSat from Spain.

Equipped with an AIS receiver to monitor ships and a medium-resolution near-infrared camera to track maritime traffic and detect wildfires, ZACube 2 was developed by the French South African Institute of Technology and the Cape Peninsula University of Technology near Cape Town. Lume 1 comes from the University of Vigo and a spinoff Spanish company named Alén Space, and is also designed for the early detection of wildfires.

** Würzburg experimental satellite “Uwe 4” arrived in orbit | BR24 (Translation)

From now on, “Uwe 4” should contact the ground station in Würzburg six times a day for about ten minutes. “Uwe 4” is supposed to circle the earth for about a year. The micro satellite carries an electric engine that allows it to change its orbit in orbit. In the class of the so-called “Pico satellites” , up to a weight of one kilogram, the Würzburg researchers are the first to succeed.

“In this respect, this is a new milestone for the world of micro-satellites, which was realized together with the partners of the Technical University of Dresden.” Professor Klaus Schilling from the Chair of Robotics and Telematics

** AMSAT news on student and amateur CubeSat/smallsat projects: ANS-364 AMSAT News Service Special Bulletin

  • AMSAT CW Activity Day January 1, 2019 In Memory Of W3XO
  • Soyuz Flight Deploys Amateur Radio Satellites
  • In-Orbit Test (IOT) of Es’hail-2 AMSAT P4-A transponders
  • Changes to the AMSAT-NA TLE Distribution for December 27, 2018
  • Ham Talk Live Podcast Featuring KO4MA
  • Multiple Flight Projects Selected by International Space Station U.S. National Laboratory
  • AMSAT Awards Update
  • Upcoming Satellite Operations
  • Satellite Shorts from All Over

** Episode 146 – Making the Most of Satellite Time | Ham Talk Live! – “Drew Glasbrenner, KO4MA, from AMSAT is here to talk your calls about getting the most out of satellite time. We’ll talk about what to say, when to say it, and other etiquette and protocol issues so that you can make the most of your satellite operation!”

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General CubeSat/SmallSat info:

Amateur/Student Satellite, Education, Space participation

Student and amateur CubeSat news roundup – Dec.26.2018

A sampling of recent articles, press releases, etc. about student and amateur CubeSat / SmallSat projects and programs:

** UF research satellite launches into orbit – Gainesville Sun – Gainesville, FL

… NASA launched a University of Florida satellite that could help improve the accuracy of timing-sensitive satellites, such as GPS.

The satellite is more than 500 kilometers (315 miles) above Earth, orbiting at a speed of 17,500 miles per hour.

“We’ve spent five and a half years to get to this point, and the launch is always the riskiest part,” said UF mechanical and aerospace engineering Associate Professor John Conklin. “Having passed that hurdle, it feels great.”

The UF satellite was one of 13 research cube satellites launched by Rocket Lab Electron from New Zealand as part of NASA’s Educational Launch of Nanosatellites (ELaNa) program. The goal of UF’s research from space is to improve time-transfer synchronizing systems through laser technology. Systems like GPS synchronize their times through radio waves, which have a higher delay in the atmosphere and also a higher error rate.

** UWE-4 satellite ready to launch | Southgate Amateur Radio News – UWE-4 – Lehrstuhl für Informatik VII

The University Würzburg Experimental Satellite 4 (UWE-4) is the most recent project within the UWE CubeSat family. This 1U (one unit) CubeSat will incorporate for the first time in the UWE program a propulsion system. The satellite is scheduled for launch on board a Soyuz-2 mission using a Fregat upper stage in December 2018.

** CubeSats Could Use Laser Pointers to Transmit Data to Earth > ENGINEERING.com

But laser communications also have a significant drawback: because laser beams are much more focused than radio waves, they need to be pointed with much greater precision at receivers on the ground.

The MIT team developed a laser-pointing platform about the size of a coffee mug that uses a mirror, smaller than a fingernail, to bounce the laser down toward a ground receiver. The platform can adjust the angle of the mirror to change the laser’s direction.

** AMSAT news on student and amateur CubeSat/smallsat projects: ANS-357 AMSAT News Service Special Bulletin

  • Changes to the AMSAT-NA TLE Distribution for December 20, 2018
  • UWE-4 Satellite Ready to Launch
  • New Amateur Radio Packet Gear Awaits Unpacking, Installation on Space Station
  • Successful “AMSAT on the Queen Mary” Operation
  • AMSAT CW Activity Day January 1, 2019 In Memory Of W3XO
  • ELaNa-XIX Successfully Launched
  • AMSAT Awards
  • Upcoming Satellite Operations
  • ARISS News
  • Satellite Shorts from All Over

General CubeSat/SmallSat info:

  • Venture Class Rockets First Class Flights for CubeSats – NASA:

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Amateur/Student Satellite, Education

Student and amateur CubeSat news roundup – Dec.17.2018

A sampling of recent articles, press releases, etc. about student and amateur CubeSat / SmallSat projects and programs:

** Satellite built by Champaign firm, UI students about to set sail | News-Gazette.com

The small “CubeSail” satellite, more than a decade in the making, is set to launch sometime after 10 p.m. from New Zealand, hitching a ride on the Electron rocket from the commercial space company Rocket Lab.

Designed and built by UI engineering students and CU Aerospace, a Champaign technology firm, CubeSail will demonstrate a new technique for steering a “solar sail,” a solar-powered satellite propulsion system.

** NASA Mission Supports Launch of CubeSats Built by Students | NASA

NASA has enabled the deployment of two small research satellites, or CubeSats, developed by a middle school and high school. These CubeSat missions were selected through the CubeSat Launch Initiative (CSLI) as the 24th installment of the Educational Launch of Nanosatellites (ELaNa) missions. The ELaNa 24 mission embarked on the first Spaceflight Industries contracted small payload mission for NASA on a Falcon 9 rocket that lifted off Dec. 3 at 10:32 a.m. PST from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Over the past three years, more than 200 students have been involved in the design, development and construction of these CubeSats that will be deployed.

**  Laser-pointing system could help tiny satellites transmit data to Earth | MIT News

The new laser-pointing platform for CubeSats, which is detailed in the journal Optical Engineering, enables CubeSats to downlink data using fewer onboard resources at significantly higher rates than is currently possible. Rather than send down only a few images each time a CubeSat passes over a ground station, the satellites should be able to downlink thousands of high-resolution images with each flyby.

“To obtain valuable insights from Earth observations, hyperspectral images, which take images at many wavelengths and create terabytes of data, and which are really hard for CubeSats to get down, can be used,” says Kerri Cahoy, associate professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT. “But with a high-rate lasercom system you’d be able to send these detailed images down quickly. And I think this capability will make the whole CubeSat approach, using a lot of satellites in orbit so you can get global and real-time coverage, more of a reality.”

** Cal Poly’s 10th CubeSat Mission to Blast Off From New Zealand on Dec. 12 – Cal Poly News – Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo

“This was a big mission for us with a tight schedule,” said Grigory Heaton, a senior studying aerospace engineering and physics, who is the co-mission lead for the ISX mission for PolySat, the student-run research lab. “Most of the assembly occurred last winter. It’s awesome that we get to have this spacecraft launched while most of the students who worked on the assembly itself are still here at Cal Poly.”

ISX will be launched into an orbit with an altitude of about 500 kilometers — about 30 miles higher than the team’s last satellite, DAVE, or Damping and Vibrations Experiment, which launched in September from Vandenberg Air Force Base. ISX will be “in a fairly polar orbit, so the satellite will fly over almost all points on Earth at some point,” Heaton said.
….

“This is also our lab’s first time launching a satellite on a launch that is all CubeSats. Every other time we’ve launched, the satellite has been behind a much bigger satellite. So it’s pretty cool that our satellite actually gets to be inside the fairing as part of the main payload.”

PolySat is a multidisciplinary and independent lab made up of students from a variety of majors. ISX team members include students studying aerospace, computer, electrical, mechanical and software engineering as well as computer science and physics.

** Jordan’s First CubeSat, JY1Sat, is Designated as JO-97 – ARRL.org

JY1Sat, launched on December 3 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California as part of the SpaceX SSO-A: SmallSat Express launch, has been designated as Jordan OSCAR 97 (JO-97). The 1U CubeSat is a project of the Crown Prince Foundation of Jordan. Telemetry has been received and decoded around the world since the launch.

** USI Team Builds Satellite Heading to Space Station – Inside INdiana Business

A team of students from the University of Southern Indiana designed and built a satellite that launched last week on a SpaceX rocket heading for the International Space Station. The satellite will collect data for NASA research until the end of its life cycle in January 2020.

Naval Surface Warfare Center Crane says the students worked on the satellite as part of the multi-year, undergraduate Nano Ionospheric Temperature Explorer, or UNITE, CubeSat project. USI student Ryan Loehrlein, who is also an intern at NSWC Crane, called working on the NASA-funded project a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

** AMSAT news on student and amateur CubeSat/smallsat projects: ANS-350 AMSAT News Service Special Bulletin:

  • AO-85 Operation Guidelines
  • AMSAT Engineering Team Moves Forward
  • Recurring Donations Feature Added to AMSAT.org
  • Support AMSAT Using Your IRA
  • Updates to AMSAT-NA TLE Distribution
  • Fox-1E and Co-Passenger Amateur Radio Frequencies
  • ELaNa XIX Launch Delayed
  • Upcoming Satellite Operations
  • AMSAT Award Announcements
  • Dragon/NanoRacks Delivers Cubesats to ISS
  • Apollo 8 50th Anniversary Special Event
  • Amateur Satellite News From South Africa
  • Satellite Shorts From All Over

General CubeSat/SmallSat info:

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Amateur/Student Satellite, Education

Student and amateur CubeSat news roundup – Dec.11.2018

A sampling of recent articles, press releases, etc. about student and amateur CubeSat / SmallSat projects and programs:

** How Beanie Babies helped UNCW reach space – WRAL.com

On Tuesday, December 4, UNC Wilmington successfully launched their 3U CubeSat, about the size of a loaf of bread, Seahawk-1, along with 48 other CubeSats aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Seahawk-1 is now in a sun-synchronous low Earth orbit studying oceans via the HawkEye Ocean Color Imager. Study of ocean color assists the better understanding everything from plankton populations to the degradation of coral reefs to the effects of El Niño. The sun-synchronous orbit allows researchers to monitor day to day changes, imaging a swath of ocean  230 km wide down to a resolution of 120m wide.

“Landsat ocean color images traditionally cost about $1,000 each, and UNCW’s will be free to everybody.” said UNCW Center for Marine Science Professor John M. Morrison. “The data collected will improve our ability to monitor coastal environments where anthropogenic stresses like ‘red tides’ are often most acute

** Project DaVinci cube satellite to launch on Wednesday – The Coeur d’Alene Press

A team of North Idaho STEM Charter Academy students is about to land among the stars.

While the rest of the world is counting down to a new year, the Project DaVinci team is counting down to 8 p.m. Wednesday, when the cube satellite (CubeSat) the students have been working on for two years will launch into space on an electron rocket from a Rocket Lab ground station in New Zealand.

“It’s finally becoming reality,” project co-lead and ground communications lead Samantha Schroeder, a freshman, said during a team meeting at the school. “It’s very exciting.”

** USI student-built UNITE CubeSAT successfully launched, en route to International Space Station – University of Southern Indiana

After years of planning, construction and testing, the UNITE CubeSAT, a small research satellite designed and built entirely by USI undergraduate students under the direction of Dr. Glenn Kissel, associate professor of engineering, was launched into space on Wednesday, December 5 aboard a SpaceX Dragon cargo ship bound for the International Space Station. When it is launched from the ISS in 2019, it will be the first deployed satellite created by an Indiana higher education institution.

** Jordan launches first cube satellite JY1 – SatellitePro ME

The satellite was designed and built by 18 engineering students, with support from five academics and consultants, in various engineering fields, from Jordanian universities.

The CPF [Crown Prince Foundation] said the Masar team will launch a mobile application that will enable users to track the Jordanian mini satellite and communicate with it.

** AMSAT news on student and amateur CubeSat/smallsat projects: ANS-343 AMSAT News Service Special Bulletin

  • Fox-1Cliff/AO-95 Commissioning Status
  • Fox-1Cliff Launched, Initial Telemetry Received
  • Fox-1Cliff Designated AMSAT-OSCAR 95 (AO-95)
  • ExseedSat Granted VO-96 OSCAR Number
  • JY1Sat Now Jordan-OSCAR 97 (JO-97)
  • Remind Me Again? What is Going On With Fox-1Cliff?
  • Updates to AMSAT-NA TLE Distribution for 12-6-2018
  • Changes to FUNcube Warehouses
  • RadFxSat-2 / Fox-1E Launch Date NET March 2019
  • Satellites Activation From The Queen Mary On December 15
  • Help Wanted: Radio Amateurs Requested to Monitor Cubesat Downlinks
  • KG5FYI and RN3DX Join KG5TMT and KF5ONO Aboard the ISS
  • AMSAT Web Adds Donation Portal
  • Upcoming Satellite Operations
  • ARISS News
  • Shorts From All Over

General CubeSat/SmallSat info:

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Amateur/Student Satellite, Education, Space Systems

Student and amateur CubeSat news roundup – Dec.5.2018

A sampling of recent articles, press releases, etc. about student and amateur CubeSat / SmallSat projects and programs:

** Weiss School students part of SpaceX project – wptv.com

As a Space X Falcon 9 rocket launched into orbit on Monday, the students at Weiss School in Palm Beach Gardens cheered over a small piece of cargo that is theirs.

A group of middle schoolers has spent the last three years working on a small satellite known as a “cube sat” which is holding bacteria to be studied in space.

“We’ve been working on this for so long,” says 13-year-old Zoey Freedman.

** Crown Prince announces launch of first Jordanian mini satellite | Jordan Times

On this occasion, CPF’s CEO Tamam Mango was quoted in the statement as saying: “We proudly announce the launch of the first Jordanian mini satellite, designed and built by Jordanian engineers.”

She noted that the satellite was designed and built by 18 young engineering students, with support from five academics and consultants, in various engineering fields, from Jordanian universities. “Jordan has entered both the design sector and implementation of satellites, two elements in line with the Crown Prince Foundation’s mission, providing Jordanian youth with pivotal skills and tools to branch into various sectors, enhancing their capabilities, simultaneously enhancing Jordan’s position/status on various levels.”

** Asia-Pacific satellites on SpaceX’s SSO-A mission | SpaceTech Asia

Among the satellites launched were 13 satellites for Asia-Pacific (APAC) companies or those with a presence here – including the first private satellite ever launched by an Indian company. [Seven of the 13 satellites are from educational institutions.]

** AMSAT’s Fox-1Cliff Amateur Radio CubeSat Launched Successfully – ARRL

 A SpaceX Falcon 9 vehicle carried Fox-1Cliff and several other satellites into space on December 3 at approximately 1334 UTC from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, following a 1-day launch delay. (See the launch on YouTube.) According to AMSAT, at approximately 0030 UTC on December 4, several stations in Brazil — including PS8MT, PT9BM, and PT2AP — reported hearing the voice beacon “Fox-1Cliff Safe Mode,” confirming that the satellite was alive.

“Just before 0040 UTC, AMSAT Fox-1 Team Member Burns Fisher, WB1FJ, was the first to submit and upload telemetry to the AMSAT servers,” AMSAT reported on its website. “Initial telemetry values show the satellite to be in good health. Thanks to the 29 stations that contributed telemetry during Fox-1Cliff’s initial orbits.”

** Micro satellite ExseedSAT1 to fly on SpaceX – The Hindu BusinessLine

This satellite is freely available for all radio amateurs across the world. It is an open radio transponder that works on ham radio frequencies. One has to pay just Rs 100 license from the WPC to communicate through this satellite.

The Indian government has waived the need for security clearances for amateur radio, enabling a lot of students to quickly apply and obtain radio amateur license, Farhan told BusinessLine.

ExseedSAT1 aims to provide a major boost to private radio operators after ISRO-manufactured micro-satellite, HAMSAT, ceased operations about four years ago. The amateur radio services provide vital communication links during natural disasters.

** Annabelle Grant named winner of Yukon College CubeSat idea contest | Yukon College

Out of 15 submitted ideas from 15 contest participants, Annabelle Grant has been named the winner of the Yukon CubeSat idea contest. 

Grant’s name was pulled from a hat last week. Her idea for the micro-satellite payload is to have it track solid waste in oceans through photographs from low earth orbit.

Other notable ideas submitted to the contest last month involve using data collected from space for education and outreach with the public, using the CubeSat to transmit Yukon stories through amateur radio frequencies, and capturing visual and magnetic studies of the aurora.

As the contest winner, Grant’s name will be featured on the 10cm x 10cm x 20cm satellite due to be launched into orbit in 2020.

See also the Canadian CubeSat Project – Canada.ca.

** USI blasts off into space – The Shield

“Once I heard the word, ‘space’ and ‘USI to be involved with it,’ I immediately asked him how I could jump in on the project,” Loehrlein said. “And he said if he got the grant I’d be asked to be on the team.”

Loehrlein, a senior engineering and finance major, said it felt amazing when the university received the grant.

“It was kind of a mind-blowing opportunity,” Loehrlein said. “I didn’t really expect a small university like USI to originally get a NASA grant for two hundred thousand dollars. So hearing we actually got it and that I could work on a satellite while at USI, it was, honestly, something I couldn’t even fathom at the time.”

* AMSAT news on student and amateur CubeSat/smallsat projects: ANS-336 AMSAT News Service Special Bulletin

  • Fox-1Cliff Launch Targeted for December 2nd
  • AMSAT Web Adds Donation Portal
  • Amateur Radio Contest for Receiving PW-Sat2 Telemetry
  • Additional Amateur Radio Communication Cubesats Launch on SSO-A
  • AMSAT-DL Provides Update for Es’hail-2/P4A Geosynchronous Orbit
  • Nihon University NEXUS VU-mode Linear Transponder Launch Announcement
  • AMSAT Rover Award Updates
  • VUCC Awards-Endorsements for November 2018
  • Upcoming Satellite Operations Reported by KE4AL
  • ESA and RaspberryPi.org Collaborate on Astro Pi Mission Zero
  • MarCo Cubesats Relay NASA’s InSight Mars Lander Touchdown
  • Happy 20th Anniversary to the International Space Station
  • Satellite Shorts From All Over

Other CubeSat and smallsat news & info:

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