CubeSat is a three-year project in partnership with the Canadian Space Agency in which multiple student teams work together to design, build and launch a miniature satellite. UPEI was one of 15 schools chosen for the project and started building the satellite in September.
The project at UPEI is a little different than others. The satellite is being worked on primarily by undergraduate students, said dean of engineering, Nicholas Krouglicof.
“We are doing it primarily with the undergraduate students through our design clinic program.”
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The satellite being built by UPEI engineering students called SpudNik-1 will be used for precision agriculture on the Island. It will be able to detect a small area to distribute pesticides, instead of just spraying a large area. It will be able to determine if crops need more water and detect changes in overall landscape.
Implemented by HeroX, the challenge sought ideas and concepts that incorporate small satellite technology along with other space, stratosphere, land and water surface systems to improve upon the current system of data reception for tracking animal position and path movement. A panel made up of NASA, BOEM and external experts evaluated submissions and recommended two winners. HeroX awarded each winning team $15,000.
Gaia: The Future of Satellite Animal Tracking, London Gaia proposed a constellation of 42 CubeSats orbiting 400 miles above Earth, each with a unique deployable antenna to enable reliable communication with 401 MHz animal tags. The design could enhance bandwidth, coverage and geolocation accuracy.
NEMO: The Near Earth Marine Observer, Stanford University in California This team of five graduate students proposed a constellation of 10 polar orbiting CubeSats and implements an open tag tracking standard via Doppler-shift location mapping. Using low-cost commercial-off-the-shelf hardware and open-source software protocols, the solution could provide fast, low-cost and easy access to tag data.
A part of the Globular star cluster NGC 5466. “On the right, Hubble images taken ten years apart were compared to clock the cluster’s velocity. A grid in the background helps to illustrate the stellar motion in the foreground cluster (located 52,000 light-years away). Notice that background galaxies (top right of center, bottom left of center) do not appear to move because they are so much farther away, many millions of light-years. Credits: NASA, ESA and S.T. Sohn and J. DePasquale (STScI)” – Universe Today
At a public seminar at NASA JPL, Jessie Christiansen and Karl Stapelfeldt of Caltech and NASA talked about the exoplanets discoveries made thus far and those to be made by new observatories:
Since the discovery of the first exoplanet orbiting a sun-like star in 1995, several thousand more have been discovered. We’ve peered into the atmospheres of some, and we’ve found whole families of planets orbiting strange stars — many in configurations starkly different from our own. We’ve learned a lot from NASA’s Kepler mission, which launched 10 years ago and ceased operations in November 2018. A new NASA planet-hunting spacecraft called TESS, which began science operations as Kepler was winding down, will give us thousands of new discoveries in the coming years. And the Spitzer Space Telescope has provided us valuable insights into what these worlds might be like. This show will look at the state of exoplanet science and give us a view of what future discoveries may be around the corner.
This National Geo video gives a brief overview of exoplanets and how they are found and studied:
Here is the latest episode of NASA’s weekly Space to Ground reports on activities related to the International Space Station:
Other NASA videos released this week focus on building upon lessons learned in LEO to go beyond earth orbit:
** NASA wants to build a human-tended station around the Moon called the Gateway:
** Agency chief Jim Bridenstine talked about lunar goals:
In an address from Kennedy Space Center on March 11, 2019, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine shares the work underway to return astronauts to the Moon and onward to Mars.
** Technologies for lunar exploration and a human base:
A sampling of recent items related to traveling to and through space:
[ Update: The Soyuz launch and docking with the ISS were successful:
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** A Russian Soyuz is set to launch today with three new crew members to the ISS. Astronaut Christina Koch, on her first mission to space, joins cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin and NASA flight engineer Tyler “Nick” Hague, who were both on the Soyuz MS-10 that suffered an in-flight abort last October. The Soyuz with the threesome will reach the station after a quick 6 hour flight.
** United Launch Alliance (ULA) is set to launch a Delta IV rocket on Friday from Cape Canaveral with the 10th Wideband Global SATCOM spacecraft (Wideband Gapfiller Satellite), built by Boeing for the U.S. military. Delta IV WGS-10 – United Launch Alliance (ULA) Rocket Launch
The webcast starts at 6:56 p.m. EDT and the launch window extends to 9:05 p.m. EDT:
** China launched a Long March 3B on March 9th from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center. The rocket carried the Zhongxing-6C (ChinaSat-6C) communication satellite.
I am very pleased to say that the OS-M launch vehicle has completed assembly rehearsal and is currently in the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center for final preparations. Thanks to all who’ve worked so hard on it!👏👏
Check out “OS-M assembly rehearsal” video!!😍 pic.twitter.com/AvE6uUGpaz
** China’s LinkSpace tests vertical takeoff and landing rocket, similar to the type flown by Masten Space for many years. The LinkSpace goal is a reusable first stage for a rocket that will launch small satellites to low earth orbit:
Granted, LinkSpace’s first planned orbital rocket New Line 1 is only expected to lift about 200kg into SSO (vs Falcon 9’s 10,000 kg to Polar). But they’re getting there: pic.twitter.com/a0ROK2RTtM
Another stage test done. Getting ready for the next flight after DARPA R3D2. The team are really streamlining things now. Build, test, launch – repeat! pic.twitter.com/r0NZO0f1Tp
Following a delay to payload arrival, the R3D2 spacecraft is now at LC-1 & integration is underway! The launch window has been adjusted to the second half of March to provide the prime contractor with additional time to complete payload and spacecraft validation & verification. https://t.co/WeFJWk8hA3
** Reaction Engines will start building a prototype Sabre rocket engine after an ESA review gives the design a thumbs-up. While powering a vehicle in the atmosphere, the Sabre’s pre-cooler would gather air, cool it, and feed it into the combustion chamber of the rocket along with hydrogen fuel. Once outside the atmosphere, oxygen from on-board tanks would feed the Sabre (Synergetic Air-Breathing Rocket Engine):
“The Synergistic Air-Breathing Rocket Engine is uniquely designed to scoop up atmospheric air during the early part of its flight to orbit. This slashes the need for the vehicle to carry bulky onboard oxygen for this part of the ascent, before switching to rocket mode drawing on internal propellants for its final climb to space. To allow SABRE to use the superfast onrushing airstream as oxidiser, the air must be cooled from 1000°C to –150°C within just a hundredth of second, at the same time avoiding the formation of dangerous ice.” – Engine Airflow/ESA
The air-cooler technology has been proven in a standalone test. The demo engine will include only the rocket
Reaction Engines launched a significant new element of its development programme in October 2016 to design, build and demonstrate a SABRE engine core. The test item consists of an engine core, which is a major module of the complete SABRE engine, but without the pre-cooler and rocket nozzle in place. This core design and development activity is a major undertaking and upon completion of the tests, major elements of the world’s first air-breathing engine capable of accelerating from zero to Mach 5 will have been demonstrated.
The SABRE engine core tests are part of a range of development activities currently underway at Reaction Engines. The company will shortly begin its HTX ‘hot’ heat exchanger testing in a unique test facility it has constructed in Colorado, United States. The HTX test programme is a manufacturing and performance ground-level demonstration of the SABRE engine ‘Pre-Cooler’ heat exchanger in a high temperature environment, similar to that expected to be seen by the SABRE engine during its air-breathing flight regime – up to 1000°C air inlet temperature.
The goal is an propulsion system efficient enough to power a single-stage-to-orbit vehicle like the Skylon.
[HyperSciences founder and CEO Mark] Russell and his team have developed a low-cost, multi-purpose projectile called the HyperDrone that can accelerate to velocities over five times the speed of sound and pulverize hard rock via their HyperDrill. This will enable tunneling speeds that are 5-10 times quicker than conventional methods, and more importantly, it opens up significant market viability in other industries that could benefit, namely when that acceleration is pointed skyward. NASA has already recognized this potential and is a current investor and major partner of HyperSciences.
With a nuclear rocket like the ones researched in project NERVA, a trip to Mars could be done in four months. (Interestingly, the astronauts would actually be exposed to less radiation with a nuclear ship, because shortening the trip reduces their exposure to cosmic rays in space.) And with higher thrust and higher efficiency, nuclear rockets would open up much of the solar system. They could even be designed to rendezvous with comets and use cometary ice as fuel for the return trip.
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Now NASA is getting interested in nuclear rockets again. In 2017, it awarded a nearly $19 million contract for development. And this year’s NASA budget contains $100 million for nuclear thermal research, leading to a demonstration in 2024.
Last Friday, SpaceX Spokesman James Gleeson said in an email that the Starship prototype was moved in preparation for non-public testing.
“SpaceX will conduct checkouts of the newly installed ground systems and perform a short static fire test in the days ahead,” Gleeson said. “Although the prototype is designed to perform sub-orbital flights, or hops, powered by the SpaceX Raptor engine, the vehicle will be tethered during initial testing and hops will not be visible from offsite. SpaceX will establish a safety zone perimeter in coordination with local enforcement and signage will be in place to alert the community prior to the testing.”
**** The latest view of the StarHopper from a drone flying above the SpaceX facilities:
****Scott Manley gives his review of the Crew Dragon mission to the ISS:
Yesterday SpaceX’s crew capable Dragon 2 spacecraft completed its visit to the ISS, demonstrating the technology was sound and clearing one more hurdle on its way to becoming a commercial crew transportation provider.
**** Videos of the Crew Dragon and the Falcon 9 booster following the mission (via www.USLaunchReport.com):
