Category Archives: Amateur/Student Satellite

Amateur/Student Satellite, Education

Student CubeSat projects roundup – Nov.4.2018

A sampling of recent stories about student CubeSat projects and programs:

** Young women are crowdfunding Kyrgyzstan’s first satellite — Quartz

Of the world’s 195 countries, 72 have official space agencies, including Nigeria, Bangladesh, Peru, and Bolivia. Kyrgyzstan does not. So a group of young women decided to start their own.

Kyrgyzstan is not an easy place to be female; it was described last year by Reuters as “a nation rife with domestic violence, child marriage and bride kidnappings.” The dozen or so members of the Kyrgyz Space Program, who range in age from 17 to 25, came together for a free robotics course started by journalist and TED fellow Bektour Iskender last March and meet twice a week at the offices of Kloop, the independent journalism school Iskender runs in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan’s capital. They are crowdfunding their work towards building and launching a cube satellite, a miniature design known as a CubeSat that can cost as little as $150,000 to produce.

** ASGC [Alabama Space Grant Consortium] gears up to build first collaborative CubeSat to measure gamma-ray bursts – Univ. of Alabama at Huntsville

Based at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH), ASGC member universities are Alabama A&M University, Auburn University, Tuskegee University, The University of Alabama, The University of Alabama at Birmingham, UAH and University of South Alabama. ASGC members have individually launched two previous CubeSats, and five CubeSat projects are underway independent of the collaborative effort.

The first collaborative ASGC CubeSat project will carry a gamma-ray burst (GRB) detector to be placed in the vicinity of the moon to detect short gamma-ray bursts.

** Cal Poly students helped integrate first CubeSat to photograph Mars, image released – Mustang News

Students from the on-campus organization Cal Poly CubeSat Laboratory, or PolySat, helped integrate two CubeSats for launch in May, which just became the first spacecrafts of their kind to photograph Mars. The two CubeSats — MarCO-A and MarCO-B, collectively called MarCO — are twin miniaturized satellites, each roughly the size of a briefcase, that will be testing communications capabilities in deep space.

PolySat members partnered with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) to help integrate MarCO before take-off, which involved final spacecraft check ups and securing both CubeSats into their deployers. MarCO-B captured a photo of Mars on October 3 as part of a test in exposure settings and the image was released by NASA October 22.

Here is the CubeSat photo of Mars released by NASA JPL:

** Japan launches GOSAT-2, UAE’s KhalifaSat, the Philippines’ Diwata-2, and 3 cubesats | SpaceTech Asia

Along with these, today’s launch carried two other small satellites, all from Japanese universities. The largest is the 45kg the 22kg Ten-Koh, developed by Kyushu Institute of Technology. Interestingly, the satellite is Quasi-spherical and covered with solar cells, and will measure the degradation of advanced materials due to magnetic flux and radiation in the LEO environment.

Lastly, two 1U cubesats were orbited – AUTcube 2 by Aichi University of Technology with a mission to demonstrate Virtual Reality (VR) and satellite communication using LED bulbs, as well as STARS-AO by Shizuoka University, which carries a tiny telescope for astronomical observations.

** UAE students integrate MYSAT-1 – SatellitePro ME

MYSAT-1 is the first CubeSat (a miniature satellite used for space research) developed by students of the Khalifa University’s Space Systems and Technology Masters Programme.

The UAE’s Khalifa University students and faculty have participated in the successful integration of the “MYSAT-1” CubeSat to NanoRacks’ external Cygnus Cubesat deployer, an automated cargo resupply spacecraft destined for the International Space Station (ISS).

** With this UP scholarship, you’ll learn how to build a cube satellite – FlipScience

After the successful launches of Diwata-1 and Maya-1, interest in Pinoy space science is at an all-time high. As the PHL-Microsat team prepares to launch Diwata-2 by the end of October, the Department of Science and Technology – Science Education Institute (DOST-SEI) and the University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman offer a unique, unprecedented educational track in the Philippines: one where you can learn — and actually experience — how to build a cube satellite of your own.

** QU college launches CubeSat project – Gulf Times

Qatar University College of Engineering (QU-CENG) has announced the launching of its CubeSat project. The first QU built CubeSat satellite is to be called QUBSat-I.

The new initiative aims to conceive a multidisciplinary students’ based mega project focused on building, launching and operating a miniaturised pico-satellite system and a satellite ground station according to the CubeSat standardised project in addition to an experimental rocket launching facility. 

** Space lab launching at Grace Brethren | Simi Valley Acorn

One small snip of a ribbon will mark one giant leap for science students next month at Grace Brethren High School.

As part of the Simi Valley school’s open house on Nov. 3, officials will hold an 11:30 a.m. ribbon cutting for the Space Brethren Cubesat Laboratory, a high-tech lab where students will build and operate a Cube Satellite set to launch in 2020.

** Student-Built Spacecraft Ready for Launch | UVA Today

The students, working on a grant from the Virginia Space Grant Consortium, said the project has allowed them to be both independent thinkers and team players as they’ve worked their way through a seemingly endless series of problems and challenges, from design and construction of the craft to writing the computer code for its operation.

Puckette and LaCour said the CubeSat project has provided valuable on-the-job training, as they have worked as engineers on a real-world – or, out-of-this-world – NASA mission. They’ve made countless calls to engineers, technicians and other experts at the space agency, and to aerospace and computer companies as they built their expertise in areas that transcend what they’ve learned in Engineering School classes. They’ve also met with, and coordinated planning with, their student colleagues at the other Virginia universities.

** Find more news about student and amateur CubeSat/smallsat projects at AMSAT – The Radio Amateur Satellite Corporation.

Here is today’s report: ANS-308 AMSAT News Service Weekly Bulletins

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Amateur/Student Satellite, Space Radio, Space Systems

Audio: The evolution of the SmallSat industry

Small satellites, which typically refers to spacecraft in the kilogram to a few hundred kilograms range, have become in the past few years a large and growing part of what is happening in space. Smallsats have actually been around since the start of the Space Age. Just a few years after Sputnik reached orbit, the first amateur satellite reached orbit as well. (See A Brief History of AMSAT.) Note that “amateur” here refers primarily to the involvement of the amateur radio community and the use of amateur radio bands for communications with the satellites.

For decades, smallsats remained a niche activity carried out mostly by AMSAT and university student teams. Now companies like Planet and Spire operate hundreds of satellites in orbit for commercial purposes and constellations with thousands of satellites are set to be deployed during the coming years.

The Small Satellite Conference has been held annually in Logan, Utah since 1987 and it’s growth from a gathering of less than a hundred people to a jamboree with a few thousand people has mirrored the growth in the smallsat sector. In this interview, Dr. Pat Patterson, Director of Advanced Concepts at Utah State University Space Dynamics Laboratory and Chairman of the SmallSat Conference, talks about the Constellations, a New Space and Satellite Innovation Podcast: Sputnik, Constellations and the Evolution of the Small Sat Industry

After referring to the 84 kg Sputnik, launched in 1957 as a “small satellite,” Dr. Patterson discusses the three keys to the growth of the small sat industry: affordability, responsiveness and shorter development cycles. And because the barrier to entry is so much lower for small satellites, more and more small companies begin to come online bringing a lot more competition, which brings a lot more good ideas to the table.

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Einstein’s Monsters: The Life and Times of Black Holes

 

Amateur/Student Satellite, Space Models

Build a LEGO version of the Planet Labs Dove satellite

These days even elementary student groups and small organizations are building CubeSats and seeing them go into orbit. If you are not up to building and launching a working spacecraft yourself, here are the directions for assembling a LEGO model of the Dove earth imaging CubeSat developed by the company Planet of Silicon Valley:  Planet Labs Dove – Instructions, Parts List, Options

Custom built LEGO model of the Planet Dove 3U CubeSat

The history of the project can be found in the blog posts by Scott Moore, Jr. at LEGO Designs.

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Activism, Amateur/Student Satellite, SpaceCasts

Video: TMRO Space – “The big deal about SmallSats”

The lates episode of the TMRO Space program is now available: The big deal about SmallSats – TMRO

Emory Stagmer (@VAXHeadroom) and Craig Elder join us in studio to talk about the recent SmallSat conference and what the big deal about small satellites actually is.

Other topics discussed:

Launch Minute
Delta 4 Heavy Launches Parker Solar Probe

Space News
NANODIAMONDS in space
Cosmonauts play “Toss the CubeSat”
Earth material more common than we thought 

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Amateur/Student Satellite, Education, Living in Space

Video: Cosmonauts throw student CubeSats into orbit during ISS spacewalk

On Wednesday, Russian flight engineers Oleg Artemyev and Sergey Prokopyev made a spacewalk outside the International Space Station.  Their initial tasks included hurling four student-built smallsats into orbit: Spacewalkers toss nanosatellites into orbit, hook up bird migration monitor – Spaceflight Now

The spacewalkers’ first task was the deployment — by hand — of four CubeSats built by Russian students.

The cosmonauts carried with them two Tanyusha satellites, each about the size of a small toaster oven, built by students at Southwestern State University with demo payloads to study spacecraft autonomy technology and to measure the vacuum of space. Another pair of SiriusSat CubeSats, assembled by Russian schoolchildren and equipped with particle detectors, was also with the cosmonauts.

Prokopyev tossed the four nanosatellites into space by hand just outside the Pirs airlock, using a manual release method used on previous Russian spacewalks.

Here is a video of the hand-tossed orbital deployments plus views of the tiny satellites drifting away from the station:

Most of the rest of the nearly 8 hour long EVA involved installation of an antenna and related equipment for a German project to track animals wearing GPS transmitters:

Then the duo turned their attention to the installation of antennas and cables for a German-developed instrument package to track global animal movements. The equipment was placed outside the station’s Zvezda service module in a multi-step procedure that took a couple of hours longer than originally planned.

Called Icarus, the project aims to reveal changes in migratory routes, animal connections and other animal behavior. The antenna for Icarus was carried aloft in February, and a computer launched on a Russian Progress mission last year to help process the signals coming from tracking units tagged to animals on Earth.

“Icarus is a global collaboration of research scientists that are interested in life on the globe, and once we put together all the information on mobile animals, then we have a different and new understanding of life on Earth,” said Martin Wikelski, lead scientist on the Icarus project, director of the Max Planck Institute of Ornithology, and professor the University of Konstanz in Germany.

The Icarus project will start by tracking small animals, such as birds, bats and flying foxes, according to DLR, the German Aerospace Center. Tags fixed to the animals will transmit information on their migratory behavior — such as their GPS coordinates, acceleration and environmental data — up to a receiver on the space station.

See also

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