Student and amateur CubeSat news roundup – Nov.24.2019

A sampling of recent articles, press releases, etc. related to student and amateur CubeSat / SmallSat projects and programs (find previous smallsat roundups here):

** Update on Arizona State’s Phoenix CubeSat, which reached the ISS on the recent Northrop Grumman Cygnus cargo mission: Arizona State University students design satellite to research Urban Heat Island – abc15.com

“Concrete and asphalt tend to retain the heat of the sun and heat the place. We want to know exactly why, where, and when the cities are heating up,” De La Vega stated.

Once the satellite gets deployed by astronauts onboard the International Space Station in January, the team will be testing, calibrating, and hopefully, receiving data from the satellite for further research.

ASU Phoenix Cubesat Diagram
Component diagram of the ASU Phoenix Cubesat.

** And an update on the Univ. of Minnesota’s SOCRATES cubesat, which also rode the Cygnus to the ISS: The University of Minnesota Sends CubeSat to Space – Food & Beverage Herald

[SOCRATES} is the first-ever made by the university in a joint venture featuring university professors and students from a variety of space-related fields and engineering. The project is under NASA’s Undergraduate Student Instrument Project, which was started three years ago to give students opportunities to build and launch satellites into space.

More than 30 students from the university were interested in the program, led by Kyle Houser, the chief engineer and Burgett, the project manager. The SOCRATES was developed in the university’s Small Satellite Project Lab, founded by Demoz Gebre and physics professor Lindsay Glesener for a small satellite study.

The SOCRATES is fitted with state-of-the-art X-ray detection sensors to provide navigation when GPS is inaccessible. The satellite will also be able to capture information on electronic acceleration from solar flares to aid in the study of the solar phenomenon. The SOCRATES will be released to orbit the Earth in January 2020 from the International Space Station, where it is held at the moment.

** AMSAT news on student and amateur CubeSat/smallsat projects: ANS-328 AMSAT News Service Special Bulletin

  • AMSAT Auction Celebrating the 45th Birthday of AO-7 Now Live
  • November 18 Marked 2nd Anniversary On Orbit for AMSAT-OSCAR 91
  • November 21 Marked 6th Anniverary of AMSAT-UK’s AO-73 FUNcube-1
  • Proposed FCC Auction of C-Band Increases Competition for Allocations
  • Satellite Operations From the Queen Mary on December 14
  • Donate to AMSAT Tax-Free From Your IRA
  • Open Source ‘APRS to Discord’ Bridge Project Begins Testing
  • ARISS Activities
  • Upcoming Satellite Operations
  • The Voyage Home: Japan’s Hayabusa-2 Probe Heads Back to Earth
  • Satellite Shorts From All Over

General CubeSat/SmallSat info:

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