Amateur/Student Satellite, Education, Space Systems

Student and amateur CubeSat news roundup – Sept.29.2019

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

** ESA hosts CubeSats Hands-On Training Week for university students: Students experience of miniature satellites with CubeSats Hands-On training – ESA

CubeSats are highly versatile satellites built up by 1 or more units measuring just 10cm along each side. Learning how to best use these tools is a valuable skill, so ESA Academy has hosted the CubeSats Hands-On Training Week 2019. Running from 16 – 20 September 2019 at ESA Academy’s Training and Learning Centre, ESEC-Galaxia, Belgium, the event was attended by 26 university students from 15 different ESA Member States and Canada.

The Training Week had a clear objective: transfer hands-on knowledge to university students who are keen to start their own educational CubeSat initiatives, or who are already at the conceptual or preliminary design stage of a CubeSat project at university. To achieve this aim, ESA Academy assembled a team of experienced tutors to lead the course. These included ESA experts, the Fly Your Satellite! (ESA’s educational CubeSat initiative) team, and two engineers from Theia Space (Universidad Politecnica de Madrid) delivering laboratory sessions with high-grade model CubeSats, called Educational Satellite models (ESATs).

ESA CubeSat training

** MeznSat CubeSat in development by two UAE university student teams with UAE Space Agency support: Inspiring students to reach for the stars  – Gulf News

One of the main objectives of the UAE Space Agency is to build capabilities in the space sector, in space engineering and sciences, especially within the university community. MeznSat, initiated in 2017, began as an education programme to design, build and operate a satellite, but at an educational level.

There is a global trend in space education programmes, encouraging the use of CubeSats or nanosatellites to engage students in satellite and space research. However, what started as an educational trend is now slowly turning commercial with private agencies and companies using satellites built by student bodies for commercial purposes.

The UAE Space Agency followed up on this trend with the founding of the MeznSat programme, a 3U CubeSat that will be used to study the environment and also look at greenhouse gas emissions over the UAE, especially methane and carbon dioxide. The programme is founded and run by the UAE Space Agency with participation by two local universities, Khalifa University and the American University of Ras Al Khaimah (AURAK).

 

More about MeznSat:

** Maine elementary school starts CubeSat project in NASA supported program: Vassalboro Community School students in line for joint project with NASA | The Town Line Newspaper

The timetable is indefinite, starting this fall. The project is supposed to take two years. Desmond expects to start with sixth-graders; the curriculum team hasn’t decided whether the second year will continue with the same students in seventh grade or hand over to the new sixth-graders.

The question the students will try to answer is whether the frequency or location of lightning strikes is changed by global warming. Sub-questions include whether the northeastern United States can expect more frequent or severe lightning strikes; if that answer is yes, what negative (like more forest fires) and positive (like more nitrogen fixing to improve soils) consequences might occur; whether energy could be captured from the lightning; and whether, if lightning is more frequent, housing codes should be adapted.

** AMSAT news on student and amateur CubeSat/smallsat projects: ANS-272 AMSAT News Service Special Bulletin

  • Experimenter Wednesday Announced for AO-92
  • The AMSAT Hamfests & Conventions Web Page Updates
  • 2019 37th AMSAT Space Symposium and Annual General Meeting
  • 2019 AMSAT Symposium On-line Registration Open Until October 11
  • Virgin Orbit’s LauncherOne Moves Another Step Closer to Flight
  • ARISS Activities & Upcoming ARISS Contact Schedule
  • Upcoming Satellite Operations
  • NASA’s International Space Apps Challenge Coming October 18-20
  • FO-29 Returns!
  • AMSAT-DL Memorandum Regarding QO-100 Operation
  • Satellite Shorts From All Over

General CubeSat/SmallSat info:

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Introduction to CubeSat Technology and Subsystem:
Orbit Design, Debris Impact, and Orbital Decay Prediction

Activism, Space Policy

Space policy roundup – Sept.27.2019

A sampling of links to recent space policy, politics, and government (US and international) related space news and resource items that I found of interest (find previous space policy roundups here):

Webcasts:

** Mission Eve: Episode 0103: Taylor Winkleman

Taylor Winkleman is a Senior Consultant at LMI and is a vocal advocate for comprehensive space policy in Washington D.C. However, when Taylor was about to graduate high school, she had no clue what she wanted to do with her life. From becoming a linguist in the Army to briefly practicing as a licensed veterinarian, Taylor’s self-defined circuitous path has equipped her to be a vital space advocate for policy that will help lead Earthlings to the stars.

** The Space Show – Tue, 09/24/2019 – Dr. Anahita Modiriasari talked about “Lunar and to a lesser degree Martian lava tubes” and “lava tube characteristics, qualities, sizes, uses, and more”.

** September 24, 2019 Zimmerman/Batchelor podcast | Behind The Black

 

In Space Infrastructure, Living in Space, Space Systems

Videos: “Space to Ground” ISS report – Sept.27.2019

This week’s Space to Ground report from NASA on activities related to the International Space Station:

** Astronaut Moments: Jessica Meir- Exploring Extreme Environments

Astronaut Jessica Meir is no stranger to extreme environments. She’s studied penguins in Antarctica and mapped caves in Italy, all of which prepared her for the ultimate extreme environment: space.

** Expedition 61 Crew Docks to the International Space Station

After launching earlier in the day in their Soyuz MS-15 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Expedition 61 Soyuz Commander Oleg Skripochka of Roscosmos, NASA Flight Engineer Jessica Meir and Spaceflight Participant Hazzaa Ali Almansoori of the United Arab Emirates arrived at the International Space Station September 25. Their arrival completed a six-hour journey when they docking their Soyuz spacecraft to the Poisk module on the Russian segment of the complex.

** Expedition 60 Artemis Interviews Randy Bresnik Kentucky Media – September 26, 2019

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Come Fly with Us: NASA’s Payload Specialist Program
(Outward Odyssey: A People’s History of Spaceflight)

Future space, Space Systems

2019 NIAC Symposium presentations

Check out the presentations on leading edge space technologies given this week at the 2019 NIAC Symposium via the videos on Livestream. The NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program provides modest amounts of funding to projects that are too close to (or too over) the leading edge for the usual SBIR type of research grants.

Here is the symposium’s agenda (pdf):

Below is a video of this morning’s session with the following speakers:

  • Phase I Fellow Joel Sercel, Lunar-Polar Propellant Mining Outpost (LPMO): Affordable Exploration and Industrialization, TransAstra Corporation
  • 2019 Phase I Fellow John Slough, Crosscutting High Apogee Refueling Orbital Navigator (CHARON) for Active Debris Removal, MSNW LLC
  • 2019 Phase I Fellow George Sowers, Thermal Mining of Ices on Cold Solar System Bodies, Colorado School of Mines
  • 2019 Phase I Fellow Robert Staehle, Low-Cost SmallSats to Explore to Our Solar System’s Boundaries, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

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Moon Rush: The New Space Race

General

Carnival of Space #630 – NextBigFuture.com

NextBigFuture.com hosts the latest Carnival of Space.

Dunes in Mars north polar area
Dunes in the north polar region of Mars as seen by the CaSSIS camera on the ESA/Roscosmos ExoMars orbiter. “The dark areas are sand deposited on the surface when the buried CO2 ice sublimated.” Image Credit: ESA/Roscosmos/CaSSIS, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO. Via Carnival of Space and Universe Today.

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LEGO Ideas NASA Apollo Saturn V 21309
Outer Space Model Rocket for Kids and Adults, Science Building Kit
(1900 pieces)

Everyone can participate in space