Student and amateur CubeSat news roundup – Feb.1.2020

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

** A review of KRAKsat performance after its deployment from the ISS in June 2019. The satellite was developed by students at the AGH University of Science and Technology and Jagiellonian University in Kraków, Poland. It was “one of the first Cubesat type satellites in Poland but also the first satellite in the world which uses magnetic liquid, called ferrofluid, for orientation control”. KRAKsat was active in orbit for about two weeks before a cascade of problems led it into an unstoppable reboot cycle.

This slow energy drain continued until the voltage dropped to the point that the power supply shut down, and that’s were things really started going south. Once the satellite shut down the batteries were able to start charging back up, which normally would have been a good thing. But unfortunately the KRAKsat had no mechanism to remain powered down once the voltage climbed back above the shutoff threshold. This caused the satellite to enter into and loop where it would reboot itself as many as 150 times per orbit (approximately 90 minutes).

The paper then goes into a laundry list of other problems that contributed to KRAKsat’s failure. For example, the satellite had redundant radios onboard, but the software on them wasn’t identical. When they needed to switch over to the secondary radio, they found that a glitch in its software meant it was unable to access some portions of the onboard flash storage. The team also identified the lack of a filesystem on the flash storage as another stumbling block; having to pull things out using a pointer and the specific memory address was a cumbersome and time consuming task made all the more difficult by the spacecraft’s deteriorating condition.

[ENG] KRAKsat & Światowid deployment seen from @Space_Station!

[PL] Deployment widziany z Międzynarodowej Stacji Kosmicznej – robi wrażenie! 🚀#kosmos #polskawkosmosie pic.twitter.com/jmE5pATBqC

— KRAKsat Space Systems (@kraksatpl) July 9, 2019

** Recognition for the CubeSat projects of the students at The Weiss School (preK-8) in Palm Beach Garderns, Florida:

More about the two Weiss School CubeSats

WeissSat1 CubeSat
WeissSat-1: A Student Developed Astrobiology Payload for Small Satellite Microgravity
Research, R. Lyons et al., 32st Annual AIAA/USU Conference on Small Satellites, Aug. 2018 (pdf).
CapSat 1 – Gunter’s Space Page
CapSat-1 – Nanosats Database

** AMSAT news on student and amateur CubeSat/smallsat projects: ANS-026 AMSAT News Service Special Bulletin

HuskySat-1 With AMSAT VHF/UHF Linear Transponder Planned for Deployment Soon
Celebration of 50th Anniversary of Australis-OSCAR 5
ARRL to Argue for Continued Access to 3-GHz Spectrum as FCC Sets Comment Deadlines
FO-99 (NEXUS) 1st Anniversary Report
Amateurs in the News: “96-year-old Amateur Radio operator at Ontario Science Centre speaks with astronaut”
Upcoming ARISS Contacts
Upcoming AMSAT Events
Upcoming Satellite Operations
Satellite Shorts From All Over

General CubeSat/SmallSat info:

Resources:
- PolySat – “PolySat is a student run, multidisciplinary independent research lab. We are the CubeSat development team of Cal Poly, an originator and leader for launches in the CubeSat community.”
- Pauline Faure – Inside the CubeSat Lab at Cal Poly – Cold Star Project

Dr. Pauline Faure, Assistant Professor at California Polytechnic State University’s Aerospace Engineering Department, is on the Cold Star Project with host Jason Kanigan. We’re talking about what it’s like to be a student in Cal Poly’s CubeSat Lab. Dr. Faure has international experience in Europe, Japan and the USA. The lab has completed eight missions in the past year including the bus for Lightsail 2. This is a great interview for space students.