Category Archives: Space Systems

Space participation, Space Systems, The Moon

SpaceIL Beresheet fires engine to send it to the Moon

SpaceIL‘s Beresheet lunar spacecraft successfully fired its engine to extend its orbit to the Moon:


This diagram shows the change in the orbit with the 20.3.2019 burn:

A graphic timeline of the major events in the Beresheet mission.

When the spacecraft’s orbit reaches the Moon on April 4th, another firing of the engine will slow the vehicle down sufficiently to put it into a highly elliptical orbit around the Moon. After several orbits, another burn will circularize the orbit. Finally, on April 11th the engine will fire to slow the vehicle such that it falls towards the surface. At 5 meters above the lunar ground, the engine will cut off and the Moon’s low gravity will pull the spacecraft slowly down to the surface.

SpaceIL founder Yonatan Winetraub gives the basics of how the spacecraft’s engine firings get it to the Moon:

This video shows the full sequence of orbital maneuvers from launch to landing:

SpaceIL is a non-profit volunteer organization in Israel that began a quest for the Moon as an entrant in the Google Lunar XPRIZE. Thought the GLXP ended last year without a winner, SpaceIL raised sufficient funds to continue with development of the spacecraft and to buy a secondary payload ride on the SpaceX Falcon 9 that launched in February.

More about the latest mission event:

====

Sunburst and Luminary: An Apollo Memoir

Amateur/Student Satellite, Education, Space Systems

Student and amateur CubeSat news roundup – Mar.10.2019

A sampling of recent articles, press releases, etc. related to student and amateur CubeSat / SmallSat projects and programs:

** Old Dominion University (ODU) CubeSat completed for the Virginia CubeSat Constellation program (see previous CubeSat Roundup for more about the Virginia Cubesat Constellation initiative): ODU’s CubeSat Moves Closer to Liftoff – News @ ODU

A team of Old Dominion University students took a giant leap toward space as they joined two other Virginia universities in delivering their CubeSats to NanoRacks in Houston on Feb. 26. The nano-sized cube satellites were successfully integrated into the company’s commercially developed NanoRacks CubeSat Deployer (NRCSD) in preparation for launch on Northrop Grumman’s Antares to the International Space Station. The launch is scheduled for April 17 from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility.

Kimberly Wright, a graduate student in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, serves as student mission manager for ODU. She was accompanied by her teammates, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering master’s student Westin Messer and Electrical Engineering master’s student Anthony Cappiello, as well as their faculty advisor, associate professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Dimitrie Popescu. Wright was thrilled to finally hand off ODU’s CubeSat for this critical step in a multiyear journey.

Kim Wright (Center), mission lead for ODU, takes a picture of the ODU CubeSat. UVA mission lead Erin Puckette (Left) and Virginia Tech mission lead Madison Brodnax (Right) look on.

**  The Alabama CubeSat Initiative will involve about 100 students and faculty from colleges around the state in the developing of CubeSats for deep space missions:

“There have been many student-developed CubeSats previously; to the best of my knowledge, there has never been a student-developed CubeSat to fly outside LEO,” says Dr. Dale Thomas, ASGC director, UAH professor and the eminent scholar in systems engineering. “I think that’s a pretty big deal. And it will be exceptionally challenging.”

On Oct. 16, the Alabama Space Authority passed a resolution supporting the Alabama CubeSat Initiative. The intent of the initiative is to ramp up a system by which ASGC members will eventually fly one collaborative CubeSat per year.

The Initiative is sponsored by the Alabama Space Grant Consortium (ASGC). Commercial support for the program: LogiCore donates $5,000 to help ASGC CubeSat workshop – ASGA

A $5,000 donation from LogiCore Corporation, a logistics and engineering services company in Huntsville Alabama is helping the Alabama Space Grant Consortium (ASGC) to design and build the first in a planned series of statewide collaborative cube satellites (CubeSats).

A recent workshop about the project, which will carry a gamma-ray burst (GRB) detector to be placed in the vicinity of the moon to detect short gamma-ray bursts, was partially sponsored by the LogiCore donation.

 

** Sydney University’s Centre for CubeSats, UAVs & their Applications (CUAVA) will build two technology demonstration satellites that will be deployed from the Japanese module on the ISS: Sydney Uni partners with Japanese start-up to launch CubeSats – iTnews

The Training Centre for CubeSats, Uncrewed Aerial Vehicles and their Applications (CUAVA) is currently developing two CubeSats to test the uses for cheaper, smaller satellites in the Australian context while developing local expertise in the field.

‘CUAVA-1’ is set to be the first satellite launched later this year, and will be laden with remote sensing, GPS, and communications equipment, along with sensors to monitor the environment in space.

Space BD, who is also a commercial service provider with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, will provide end-to-end launch and deployment services for CUAVA.

** Latest on KickSat-2, which has over 100 tiny ChipSats on board:

** AMSAT news on student and amateur CubeSat/smallsat projects: ANS-069 AMSAT News Service Special Bulletin

  • Out of This World Auction Sponsored by ARISS
  • AMSAT-F Space Meeting is First Live DATV Conference via QO-100
  • GNU Licensed KLog Logbook Software v.0.9.7 Released
  • How to support AMSAT
  • Upcoming Satellite Operations
  • Satellite Shorts from All Over

General CubeSat/SmallSat news & info:

====

Galaxy Girls: 50 Amazing Stories of Women in Space.

Living in Space, Space Systems, Spaceflight & Parabolic Flight

SpaceX Crew Dragon successfully docks to the ISS and crew enters capsule

The SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft successfully docked with the International Space Station early this morning. The uncrewed vehicle, which was launched on Saturday morning, approached the station very systematically, carrying out a set of highly choreographed actions to prove that it was capable of safely maneuvering near the station before being allowed to approach autonomously, and very slowly, push its nose into the docking adapter on the port of the Harmony module.

The first Crew Dragon docked to the ISS.

The hatch was opened about 2 hours after the docking. Crew members entered the capsule wearing air masks in case there were any leaks of noxious fumes into the capsule during the trip to the station.

Some photos of the Dragon and the ISS during the rendezvous and docking:

The Crew Dragon nears the station. The nose cap was opened soon after the Dragon was deployed from the Falcon 9 upper stage.
A view of the ISS from the Crew Dragon. Overlaid are indicators of the vehicle’s distance from the station, relative speed, etc.
Targeting the docking adapter on the Harmony module.
Views from a camera on the Crew Dragon of the docking port (left) and from a camera on the ISS of the Dragon (right).
Ripley waits in the Dragon while the crew prepared to open the hatch. The astronauts wear masks initially in case of any air quality problems in the capsule.
Astronaut David Saint-Jacques and cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko test the air inside the Dragon. Astronaut Anne McClain remained in the Harmony module.

More about the docking at:

An appropriate musical tribute to the Crew Dragon flight:

====

The Space Barons: Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos,
and the Quest to Colonize the Cosmos

History, Space Systems

Videos: Restoring an Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC)

The Apollo Guidance Computer (AGC) seems quite primitive today but it was a great advance in real time computing for the 1960s. Even with just 2k of RAM and 37k of ROM, the AGC was crucial to the successful operation of the Apollo command modules (CM) and Apollo Lunar Modules (LM).

A team organized by Marc Verdiell (CuriousMarc), who specializes in restoration of vintage electronic devices, is restoring an AGC to working condition. They have recorded their efforts in videos posted on the CuriousMarc channel.

** Apollo AGC Part 1: Restoring the computer that put man on the Moon:

We embark on the restoration of a very rare and historically significant machine: the Apollo Guidance Computer, or AGC. It was the revolutionary MIT-designed computer aboard Apollo that brought man on the Moon (and back!). Mike Stewart, space engineer extraordinaire and living AGC encyclopedia, spearheads this restoration effort. In this first episode, we setup a makeshift lab in his hotel room, somewhere in Houston. The computer belongs to a delightful private collector, Jimmie Loocke, who has generously allowed us to dive in the guts of his precious machine, with the hope of restoring it to full functionality by July 2019, the anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon Landing.

** Apollo AGC Part 2: Power supplies test

Mike Stewart gives an overview of the hardware. Enamored by the success at checking the IC gates, we proceed to check out and power up the supplies. Once again a long-ish video, but I hesitate to chop it up too much for fear of losing details that might be important to some. Let me know how I am doing.

Apollo AGC Part 3: Main Bus B Undervolt

In preparation for the AGC power up, we test the alarm module B8, simulate the Apollo 13 main bus undervolt, and discover that our memory is faulty. And we find out how much our AGC did originally cost.

Apollo AGC Part 4: We are “go” for power up

The last module has checked out OK. It’s time to attempt powering up the AGC – and see if it awakens from its 43+ years of slumber, even without proper working memory.

Apollo AGC Part 4 ½: Bonus material, full Logic Analyzer trace explanation uncut

Some inquisitive minds requested a non-edited version of the hard core read-back of the LA trace we obtained in episode 4. Your wish is hereby granted. It’s actually quite interesting, provided you are a curious minded enginerd and dedicated follower of this restoration. Normal folks, move right along. Oh, wait, are there any of these left on my channel? Anyhow, I am curious (it’s in my name) to see how popular this video is going to be.

Apollo AGC Part 5: We run a chunk of original Apollo code!

We are out of time for our first visit, and memory is not working. But our whiz kid Mike manages to whip up an FPGA memory emulator for the AGC just before we have to leave. The AGC gets to run a chunk of an original Apollo program!

Apollo AGC Part 6: Restoration update, a new sponsor, and a satellite launch

An update on the work with the DKSY, the rope memory simulator, the core memory, and Mike’s satellite launch!

You can also try out a simulation of the AGC at Online Apollo Guidance Computer Simulator.

====


Check out the Best Selling Electronics at Amazon

Amateur/Student Satellite, Education, Space Systems

Student and amateur CubeSat news roundup – Feb.25.2019

A sampling of recent articles, press releases, etc. related to student and amateur CubeSat / SmallSat projects and programs:

** LunaH-Map Spacecraft – A CubeSat project at Arizona State University:

The Lunar Polar Hydrogen Mapper (LunaH-Map) is a 6U CubeSat mission recently selected by NASA’s Science Mission Directorate to fly as a secondary payload on first Exploration Mission (EM-1) of the Space Launch System (SLS), scheduled to launch in July 2018. LunaH-Map is led by a small team of researchers and students at Arizona State University, in collaboration with NASA centers, JPL, universities, and commercial space businesses. The LunaH-Map mission will reveal hydrogen abundances at spatial scales below 10 km in order to understand the relationship between hydrogen and permanently shadowed regions, particularly craters, at the Moon’s South Pole. 

** KickSat-2 Update – Latest on the recently deployed CubeSat KickSat-2, which started as a Cornell student project funded with a Kickstarter, that release over a hundred “ChipSats” when it reaches a very low earth orbit (assuming it gets permission from the FCC to do so): KickSat-2 is Alive and Being Tracked – ARRL.org

KickSat-2 is scheduled to deploy up to 104 tiny Sprite satellites into low Earth orbit. The Sprites then would transmit on 437.240 MHz at 10 mW, communicating with each other via a mesh network and with command stations on Earth. The Sprites, which are less than 2 square inches, are expected to reenter Earth’s atmosphere within weeks. Manchester did not indicate if attempts would be made to deploy the Sprites.

NASA calls KickSat-2 a technology demonstration mission that’s designed to demonstrate the deployment and operation of prototype Sprite “ChipSats,” also known as “femtosatellites.”

The FCC recently imposed a $900,000 penalty on a commercial concern, Swarm Technologies, for launching similar tiny satellites after the FCC had denied permission.

“These spacecraft are therefore below the size threshold at which detection by the Space Surveillance Network can be considered routine,” the FCC told Swarm Technologies.

Manchester had been trying without success to convince the FCC to allow him to deploy the Sprites from KickSat-2, but, apparently gun shy after the Swarm action, the agency denied permission at the last moment.

Once NASA adopted KickSat-2 as its own mission, however, the regulatory body shifted to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), and the launch went forward.

Zachary Manchester, who started the project while a post-doc at Cornell, is now an assistant professor at the Stanford School of Engineering. Here is the REx Lab: KickSat Project page at Stanford.

** AMSAT news on student and amateur CubeSat/smallsat projects: ANS-055 AMSAT News Service Special Bulletin

  • 50th Anniversary AMSAT OSCAR Satellite Communications Achievement Award (Limited Edition) Starts March 3rd
  • FalconSAT-3 Digipeater Waiting for Your APRS Packets
  • Qatar OSCAR-100 Web Receiver Now Live
  • AMSAT Journal January/February 2019 Is on Its Way
  • KickSat-2 is Alive and Being Tracked (Updated 2/19/2019)
  • Ladybird Guide to Spacecraft Communications Training Course
  • IARU Region 1 Youngsters on the Air (YOTA) Announced
  • This Month in AMSAT History
  • AMSAT-SA Space Symposium March 16, 2019
  • HamSCI Workshop Receives National Science Foundation Grant
  • Upcoming Satellite Operations
  • ARISS News
  • Satellite Shorts from All Over

General CubeSat/SmallSat info:

====


Check out the Best Selling Electronics at Amazon