{"id":17407,"date":"2018-12-26T09:00:39","date_gmt":"2018-12-26T14:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=17407"},"modified":"2018-12-26T00:39:20","modified_gmt":"2018-12-26T05:39:20","slug":"student-and-amateur-cubesat-news-roundup-dec-26-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hobbyspace.com\/Blog\/?p=17407","title":{"rendered":"Student and amateur CubeSat news roundup – Dec.26.2018"},"content":{"rendered":"

A sampling of recent articles, press releases, etc. about student and amateur CubeSat<\/a> \/ SmallSat projects and programs:<\/p>\n

** UF research satellite launches into orbit – Gainesville Sun – Gainesville, FL<\/a><\/p>\n

… NASA launched a University of Florida satellite that could help improve the accuracy of timing-sensitive satellites, such as GPS.<\/em><\/p>\n

The satellite is more than 500 kilometers (315 miles) above Earth, orbiting at a speed of 17,500 miles per hour.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve spent five and a half years to get to this point, and the launch is always the riskiest part,\u201d said UF mechanical and aerospace engineering Associate Professor John Conklin. \u201cHaving passed that hurdle, it feels great.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The UF satellite was one of 13 research cube satellites launched by Rocket Lab Electron from New Zealand as part of NASA\u2019s Educational Launch of Nanosatellites (ELaNa) program. The goal of UF\u2019s research from space is to improve time-transfer synchronizing systems through laser technology. Systems like GPS synchronize their times through radio waves, which have a higher delay in the atmosphere and also a higher error rate.<\/em><\/p>\n

** UWE-4 satellite ready to launch | Southgate Amateur Radio News<\/a> –\u00a0UWE-4 – Lehrstuhl f\u00fcr Informatik VII<\/a><\/p>\n

The University W\u00fcrzburg Experimental Satellite 4 (UWE-4) is the most recent project within the UWE CubeSat family. This 1U (one unit) CubeSat will incorporate for the first time in the UWE program a propulsion system. The satellite is scheduled for launch on board a Soyuz-2 mission using a Fregat upper stage in December 2018.<\/em><\/p>\n

** CubeSats Could Use Laser Pointers to Transmit Data to Earth > ENGINEERING.com<\/a><\/p>\n

But laser communications also have a significant drawback: because laser beams are much more focused than radio waves, they need to be pointed with much greater precision at receivers on the ground.<\/em><\/p>\n

The MIT team developed a laser-pointing platform about the size of a coffee mug that uses a mirror, smaller than a fingernail, to bounce the laser down toward a ground receiver. The platform can adjust the angle of the mirror to change the laser\u2019s direction.<\/em><\/p>\n

** AMSAT<\/a> news on student and amateur CubeSat\/smallsat projects: ANS-357 AMSAT News Service Special Bulletin<\/a><\/p>\n